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Message Stick – Wathaurong Glass (2003)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
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Dreaming of glass education content clip 2

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

The story of how a commission from Manningham City Council helped start Wathaurong Glass, with shots of the beautiful artwork hanging in buildings. A practitioner speaks of going to Milan to exhibit his artwork, where the arts community has never seen Aboriginal glass art. The workers speak of the impact of the enterprise on the artists themselves as well as how it provides employment opportunities for other Indigenous people in the community.

Curator’s notes

by Romaine Moreton

The nicely shot images of the art in the council building effectively illustrate the well told and moving story of how this important commission from the council really established Wathaurong Glass. The story of the artist’s reception in Milan is also very effective, and underscores the importance of the work being created here. Wathaurong Glass is a good example of an initiative that not only creates a new way of expressing Aboriginal art, but also has inherent in its business plan the function of providing a service to the community from which it comes.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows some of the glasswork commissioned from Wathaurong Glass and Arts by the Manningham City Council in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and on permanent display in the council building. A narrator talks about the beginnings of the company and the design of the pieces as the works are shown in more detail. Joel Hayes, one of the glassmakers, then talks about taking his work to an exhibition in Italy and the enthusiastic reception it received.

Educational value points

  • Wathaurong Glass and Arts, a not-for-profit Indigenous enterprise named after the Wathaurong people who have lived in the Geelong region for more than 25,000 years, focuses on the design and manufacture of high-quality glass products, including art commissions and commercial items, and the clip shows striking examples of the artworks the enterprise produces. These include glass panels and shields produced for the Manningham City Council.
  • Wathaurong Glass and Arts specialises in a technique called kiln-formed or slumped glass – glass that is cut and heated to various temperatures in a kiln so that the artist, using gravity, can 'slump’ it into a mould or fuse or reshape it. The glass can be decorated with precious metals, painted or screen-printed with pigments. Wathaurong Glass artists also specialise in etching glass.
  • Municipal councils can play an important role in advancing local artistic talent, as seen in Manningham City Council’s commissioning of an artwork to depict aspects of the character and development of the municipality. In response Wathaurong Glass produced fourteen panels totalling 8 m in length that trace a curve along their upper edges symbolising the rolling hills to the north and east. The lower edge shows the city skyline, the municipality’s built environment.
  • Wathaurong Glass and Arts is a community initiative that combines Indigenous artistic expression with business principles. In 1998 the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative was formed and received Community Development Employment Project funding to establish a sound business plan and to train participants in decorative glass production that expresses Aboriginal artistic ideas. The company is owned and operated by Indigenous people.
  • Joel Hayes, seen in the clip describing his exhibition in Milan, is an Arrernte artist based in Geelong at Wathaurong Glass and Arts. His evocative glass artworks are featured in a number of institutional collections in Australia and overseas and in 2000 several of his large glass works were displayed at the Sydney Olympics.