Melbourne-based artist Xiaoping Zhou draws inspiration from the point where different cultural perspectives intersect.
“My work is inspired by ideas from cultural exchange. We are looking at the same things but thinking about them in different ways,” he says.
Xiaoping arrived in Australia from China 30 years ago, and quickly forged relationships with First Nations communities in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley.
His fascination with Aboriginal art began in Arnhem Land, where he was invited to take up a post as Artist in Residence at Maningrida School.
As an artist he wanted to know more about the people and the art, and to learn from nature.
“It's about life experience. To live in the outback was very different for me because I was a city boy. I’d never lived in the bush.”
Of particular interest were the rock paintings, and the important stories behind each work.
Thirty years of cultural immersion have led to a lot of sharing and dialogue about painting styles and artistic choices. The two cultures, First Nations and Chinese, meet in Xiaoping's artworks.
He recounts a time when celebrated Aboriginal artist Johnny Bulunbulun visited his Melbourne studio. He had a posthumous joint exhibition with Xiaoping in Melbourne and Beijing.
His travels through the Australian outback have revealed a rich history of Aboriginal-Chinese ancestry.
In 1989 while visiting Broome, he met songwriter Jimmy Chi, known for his musicals ‘Bran Nue Dae’ and ‘Corrugation Road’.
“He’s an Aboriginal man with Chinese heritage. He wanted to hear me say in Mandarin ‘ni hao ma’. The first time I met people like that, it surprised me.”
Xiaoping encountered many more stories of Aboriginal people with Chinese ancestry – an intersection that has barely been acknowledged in Australian history.
To learn more about how First Nations people came to have Chinese heritage, he embarked on more serious research 15 years ago.
“I thought when we learn something from Aboriginal people or study the culture, sharing or taking, you also just want to do something for them or with them.”
Xiaoping has now brought together a group of academics and experts from across the country to study and document these new branches of Australian history. The research project focusses on Aboriginal and Chinese groups in Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s.
“Many Chinese people came in search of gold and many intermarried with Aboriginal people, but the story is not well told in Australian history.”
As Project Lead he aims to produce a book and documentary, and a unique exhibition that will be toured around Australia and China.
“As Chinese, we want to help people who have the heritage but don’t know that much or have very little information they can provide. We need to help them to find their relatives in China or Australia.”
Anyone interested in contributing to, or learning more about the project is invited to visit the project website: www.aboriginal-chinese.com