The Art of Entertaining Culture is a proposed documentary series that will aim to explore historical events from pre-colonisation to the present day through the narrative of art.

The series currently under development by UoN Master of Fine Art graduate, Dene Hawken, seems to be a natural extension of his research higher degree of the same name. The Art of Entertaining Culture anticipates how this region’s ‘cultural palette’ helps shape our modern identities.

Across the four proposed episodes, the stories told will ‘exhibit’ the cross-cultural and inter-connected histories from an Awabakal perspective. A journey of discovery, it will be an entertaining, dramatic and even humorous look into a region’s artistic raconteurs.

According to Richard Neville, the Mitchell Librarian for the NSW State Library, “The shared European and Aboriginal experience – particularly reflected in the pictorial record of the early years of settlement – is a complex and nuanced story that is rarely told”. Dene is hoping to provide an investigation into this aspect of our history, something that has never been explored in the format of a full-length documentary series.

The Coal River Working Party, the University of Newcastle, Newcastle Art Gallery and the NSW State Library are supporting this initiative.

Dene, who himself has Awabakal heritage, is presently seeking financial backers for this production.
 
For any further information, you can contact Dene at dene@emporsario.com or phone 0420 304 094.

Image: Joseph Lycett—Aborigines Resting by a Camp Fire near the Mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle, NSW