Established since 1994, January 26th is "Australia Day": Australia's national holiday. Giving way to "Invasion Day" or also called « Survival Day » to claim for an official change of date has seen once again this year, all communities walking together through the streets of the country's biggest cities. In Sydney, New South Walles, where the first British fleets disembarked, an artist provides tattoos to aboriginal and aboriginal descent, inking-in motifs, in a common desire to reaffirm aboriginality. With the Tatu Lu's work over the last decade on Australia's first people they exhume family acquaintances and ink their own Mob's totems. These symbols with tattooing become a form of aboriginal pride.
Born in Sydney in 1972 and raised in a conservative family, Louisa aka Tatu Lu, becomes in the 90's a punk, activist and part of the underground scene where she has her first insight of tattoos. After getting a Bachelor in Anthropology (Aboriginal studies), Australian history and fine arts, and a career from London to Sydney, she pursued the ambition of tattooing aboriginal motifs. She is able to draw upon her knowledge to create representative and traditional art and tattoos for the Aboriginal communities and collaborate with clients through this process. “That was the main thing especially with the young ones [Indigenous people], giving them something they could be proud of, that the white fellas couldn't take from them, as well... like they did for everything else.”
Aboriginals are the oldest surviving human culture, dating back more than 50,000 years, these hunter-gatherers built their belief on the "Dreamtime", legends relating the creation of the world through the encounter of different spirits, which can take various forms: animal or human. A sort of « Big Bang » from immemorial time, teeming with myths, spirits and totems, infused with a magical, animist essence, from which paintings emerge, with their own symbolism. “This is really the first time that an indigenous culture didn't have a tattooing culture initially is actually taking the tattoo and use it to reinforce their culture.” says Lars Krutak, who has been working with Tatu Lu in the past. By choosing to tattoo only aboriginal people and their descents, she is marking the genealogy and culture that the tattooed person wishes to re-appropriate. In a post-colonial historical context, tattooing becomes a new medium of identity reaffirmation.
“Australia Day”Established in 1994, 26th January is Australia's national holiday. For the Aboriginal Community it marks the "invasion", which tends to call it "Invasion Day". This slogan calls for a change of date. However, this date marks the arrival of James Cook's first English fleet. The same one who will spread the news of the "Tatau" he witnessed in the Marquesas Islands. In 1877, when he landed in what is now Sydney Bay on the east coast of Australia, he decided to bring back, with the British government, "convicts": prisoners, sentenced to deportation, to this new Australian prison colony. Many, guilty of petty theft, emigrated and settled. Most important to acknowledge is that this is the beginning of genocides and massacres of Indigenous groups as Australia's colonisation was done through force. By the 19th century, the Indigenous population was estimated to have reduced by 90%.
A story bathed in blood, which the change of date could partly appease according to « Reconciliation Australia ». The independent organization is the national expert body for reconciliation with Aboriginal communities and people of the Torres Strait Islands. "Asking the natives to celebrate January 26 is like asking them to dance on the graves of their ancestors," their executive chef Karen Mundine told the Guardian in January 2019. Every year, there are numerous demonstrations throughout the country and joint demonstrations with Natives australiens and inhabitants sensitive to the issue (56% say they are not against a change of date and 49% do not support maintaining this date knowing that it is offensive, according to the Guardian) but the government stands still. Forced to abandon their rituals in the 19th century, their language was banned from practice and children were also forcibly removed from their families between 1869 and 1969. This is called the "Stolen Generation". They were placed to Christian missions or white foster families. Despite the apology done in 2008 by Kevin Rudd at the government for two centuries of bad treatments to the native australians, even today, for the tattoo artist Tatu Lu, there is a few people, who has not been affected by these events.
In 1967 Aboriginals became Australian citizens. Since then, several financial measures have been created such as annual "compensation" grants and the Aboriginal Land Right Act, which gives the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory back Arnhem Land and Ayers Rock, which after years of negotiations has become completely prohibited from escalation. This sacred monolith is one of Australia's most important symbols. The action taken and the decision that followed were celebrated by its owners, the Anangu on October 26. With this unique process of creating representative traditional art tattooed for the Aboriginal community, Lu bridges the gap between tradition and modernity and tends to recreate an other form of Aboriginal pride that has become increasingly available on social networks in recent years. Yet, there is still a lack of education and general knowledge among Australians about Aboriginal culture.
Traditional imaging
The traditional Aboriginal art is multiple and diverse according to the tribes. The art of Pupunia, coming from the western outback will therefore not be used by the Mob of North Queensland for example. We find this art declined in sculpture, painting, wood engraving etc., it designated a site, a cave, a water point by motifs inspired by dreams which would mean of communicating ancestral spirits. It refers to an ancient time called the Dreamtime. Aboriginal art provides a communal language and portrays specific tribal information. It is said to be intrinsically spiritual. With a thick and solid pointillism painting, closer to circles than real points this art was brought in the 1970s, when the stories of the Dreamtime began to be transferred from oral to painting. This specific dotwork would have evolved in coordination with other sacred Aboriginal symbols that only Indigenous can use and that cannot be shown to Westerners. “So dotwork evolved by covering up and disguising this symbols, putting the dotwork over the top of these symbols, which means they are in artwork the symbols are still their and are relevant underneath that work but they would covered and hidden away” These underlying symbols cannot be made on non-Indigenous people and are associated with Aboriginality. Other motifs, native from the territory such as endemic plants or totemic animals, characterize this art. As a source of life, to depict them would be to give power back to these entities. Also known as totems, they are the guardians of a natural world and the descendants of Dreamtime ancestors. Often drawn in the "X-Ray" style, which consists of a depicting an animal or human figures with their organs and bone structures clearly visible. Going so far as to represent the intestines. These totemic animals are linked to specific legends that become tattooed.
“Number one totem would have been the sand Goanna, it is a really big lizard, about 1,5 meters long. Traditionally it's very common particularly in the desert area, and would have been a very important food source and this totem belongs to a lot of tribes” Other totems such as the snake, (the Rainbow Snake being a flagship animal in the legends of the Dreamtime), often female which represents universal wisdom is materialized in many variations. Likewise, kangaroos, which are an important food resource, as well as many varieties of birds, eagles or the emu: a major totem pole. For coastal tribes, where populations are denser, totem poles generally represent the turtle, the shark or the black duck.
From underground convictions to the tattoo industry
The imagery of Dreamtime is vast and leaves room for multiple interpretations in tattooing. Spiritually linked, some of them remain sensitive subjects to interpret. Lu voluntarily confines herself to animal figures for this reason, as spirit figures can have multiple forms. “To me : who could interprete how an aboriginal spirit looks like ? I think its inappropriate to put in my concept. As a white person it is not my role [...] I use the specific spirits if they are from the same specific tribes but I don't if it's not from their mob. Tattooing spirits, is very powerfull, even people from the north would not be ready themselves in getting spirit figures tattooed because there is a lot of power and energy to take on.” If Aboriginal art manifests itself to onlookers in souvenir shops, it is threatened by Asian counterfeit goods that threaten local art, even though it is protected: « ...it is actually illegal for any non Indigenous to do any form of aboriginal art, so that's why it was very interesting for me to even do this work and it's been accepted with the aboriginal community” . In the early 1990s, Tatu Lu discovered tattooing while studying anthropology, Aboriginal History and Fine Arts. “ I was very into doing that since the very start for me even back in the early 90's, when I first went to meet eX. Since considering I wasn't Aboriginal myself, she was like “oh you probably can't do that”, so it was put on the shelf for a few years”. She succeed to her diploma in 2000 but as before, she will learn tattooing from eX de Medici, a multidisciplinary artist who will introduce the botanical and watercolor style into tattooing. She is regularly exhibited throughout Australia. At the time, the very male dominating environment left them no choice. Controlled by the biker clubs, which are generally drastic, almost no woman finds an apprenticeship. "I think we were considered as a threat and I was very lucky to be trained in tattooing by a woman named eX de Medici, a well-known Australian artist who received a scholarship from the Australian government in the late 1980s. She was able to go to Los Angeles to study tattooing with Kari Barba, (Kari Barba is one of the first tattoo artists, who has been inking for 35 years - Outer limits, Long Beach, CA, ed.)."
The two women met through a mutual friend: Phil Bastard. eX decides to take Tatu under her wing. Tatu and eX were working together for some time, when they received several threats, against their respective persons and families. ...At 21 years old the path seemed limited in Australia. eX pushes Lu to leave. "eX told me: there's nothing for you here: get out. So I spent three years in London." In London, Lu who is tattooing with stick'n'poke, since Australia had very limited supply, met Xed, and was surprised to see him using this technique instead of using a machine as he wanted to create his proper style: "I told him, but what are you doing? We have machines these days! It was incredible for me because we were forced begin our carrier that way, we had absolutely no option to buy a machine..." She met Alex Binnie and the entire London underground scene of Sacred Heart and Michele Edge of New York Adorned. Influenced by this scene and the tribal movement, she tattooed animal motifs, lizard and other designs in a tribal style.
In 2008, Her style get to a turning point.“The Indigenous work is what captured my interest back into tattooing I think, because it had a lot more meaning to it. ». Lu notice a lake of interest in Aboriginal culture and decides to ink Indigenous or descendants for free... and it gets attention. « So it started to kick off through the social media, that's how the Aboriginal community really found me and in the meantime, that's when I actually start to wait on a lot of backlash for being a white person doing that sort of work. And I was just amazed that Aboriginals were just really stoked that someone was really interested and that we were doing the work. They really embrace it. It's been fantastic and a really wild experience ». From her studies, she benefitted from a theoretical knowledge to understand the diversity and complexity of Aboriginal culture. However when it comes to tattooing her work, her clientele became her best asset; providing a field of research and access to the heart of family history. A tattoo that remains exclusively reserved for natives or their descendants. "...tattooing Westerners is automatically appropriating - by them and myself - this culture but no matter what I do and where, if it's tattooing Aboriginal people, then it's reinforcing their home, their culture and it's different." By choosing to tattoo only Indigenous, Tatu Lu has managed to gain the respect of the community. “ I had a lot of discussion about this with aboriginal people... you know they have been really screwed over, stuffed around, there have been a lot of racism [...] and they have had so much taken from them, the last thing to them, is seeing people who are not aboriginal walking around with this style of tattoos.”
From research to ink
For each client, Lu is able to draw upon her knowledge to provide design possibilities and collaborate with her clients. She asks the customer for his or her major totems, often numerous and passed down in the family through the generations. These totems represent the Mob (community or tribe). They could also be adopted, according to events, weddings etc. and become personal totems and family emblems. It's like an encyclopaedia of possibilities as there are more than 250 groups and tribes subdivided throughout Australia, each with their own dialect. « I find out what sort of specific totems they have, or are associated with them often they would be ranked by importance. Usually we use the most important one which might come from their mother side, [most of aboriginal tribes are mother runned, ndlr] and we try to use others from their mum tribe that were important as well.” Aboriginal, matriarchal communities adopt elements related to food sources and others related to the Mob: a specific mountain or river for example. Her tattoos are currently appropriate and has permission to use particular totems and symbols. The tattoo then takes shape in the manner of a "custom tattoo" including a history, a family tree that is part of traditional local areas. "It didn't really resonate until people saw what we were doing. "
“Australian Tattoo”
In addition to this specific art, Lu has developed a real panel of botanical motifs including native plants related to Australia. The tattoo imported by the settler will serve as an imagery of national pride. At the time, the Southern Cross and the major motif. Originally a part of Australian indigenous cosmology for millennia, it was rediscovered by European travellers at the end of the 15th century and considered as a sign of divine blessing for their conquests. This motif is seen as the oldest symbol of Australia.
Taken over in the 2000s by the - outright fascist - demonstrators and attackers of Muslim communities. This motif has changed from a positive symbol to an extreme right-wing symbol that is still tainted today. Out of this embarrassing past, apart from a few symbols taken from the traditional American and Anglo-Saxon, there are few Australian motifs. « it changed the whole symbol attitude for the worst and they are now sort of looking and trying to find something that australians could get tattooed that is also not completly Bogan or Red neck and that's when I started that Australian botanical artwork”. The botanical spirit depicted by Tatu Lu is opposed to a classic tattoo for tourists.“...Moving into flora and fauna was a whole new forward step as well. At first some people found it very cute and some people hate the idea.”
Tracing its origins
Jeremy is an elder of the Biripi tribe from Taree, over 400 kilometres from Sydney on the east coast. "He's very interested in his culture, aboriginal idiosyncrasies..." In his research, through his family, Jeremy understands how laws and stories have been passed on from word of mouth, from generation to generation. Jeremy has been able to collect, dance and tell stories and legends from the Biripi people.
The family, consulted from the very beginning of the project, is sometimes sceptical about the idea of this representation. So when the tattoo is finished and shown to the grandparents and parents the reactions are strong and expected. The tattoo also becomes a sign recognized and identified by other communities or simply non-Aboriginal and intrigued people. The ink becoming a sign of Aboriginal pride also creates a new relationship, a means of recognition between Mob and other people that arouses curiosity. « Another key item I have noticed and should be discussed is the amount of people that randomly come up to me in the street and ask about the significance and history of my tattoo (also to comment on how good It looks!). I often find myself describing the indigenous people of the Brewarrina region, how the natural fish traps worked and how the indigenous community constructed this amazing structure way back then. I believe the tattoo promotes good sharing of knowledge between people and helps reduce the ignorance between the cultures in today's society. » acknowledge Logan, also tattooed by Lu, chose to include fishing techniques specific to his community to represent his story. Originally from New South Wales, Logan is Aboriginal through both of his parents. He grew up in Molong with his grandparents (his father is from the Wongaibon tribe and his grandmother is from Brewarrina on his mother's side. She obtained custody of him and his brother from the age of 6 while he grew up in an environment of drugs and domestic violence. His grandmother made him promise on his deathbed to do something with his life which would motivate him all these years to continue his studies and get international scholarships. "To be honest, racism still exists extensively within the Australian culture and in order to fit in whilst growing up, my aboriginality was suppressed because I was ashamed of it and what it meant in terms of racism". After having to deal with ongoing racism during his studies, a desire to reconnect with his community grew within him. His tattoo immortalizes this impulse, since it is a tribute to his grandparents who raised him, but also represents the journey he has just started. Fishing refers to Logan's memories of family good times. The basket carried by two Goannas (in brown and ochre, personification of his grandparents while the two smaller ones point to Logan and his brother) are fish traps. The stone fish trap of the Brewarrina is still used today by the local communities, and is one of the oldest fish traps on earth, dating back at least 40,000 years. Fishing was also an opportunity for Mobs to meet. Today, Tatu Lu continues her work, but the next generation is missing. Few Aboriginal tattoo artists choose to plunge back into their own imagery. Reserved for a small circle, Lu's art has become a tool for education and awareness of a neglected Aboriginal heritage.
