Australia’s Indigenous Arts – Representing Australia

Undergrowth is a two year celebration of contemporary Australian arts currently taking place across the UK, and among the many organisations represented in the showcase are a significant number of Indigenous artists. Aboriginal playwright Wesley Enoch looks at the current status of Indigenous arts in Australia and explains the role Indigenous artists can play in shaping Australias national identity.
Across the world, the unique and fascinating cultures of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders distinguishes Australia from other Western English-speaking countries. While the visual arts have fed an international interest in Indigenous cultures (a highlight of which has been the significant representation from Aboriginal Australia in the newly opened Musée du quai Branly in Paris), Indigenous theatre, dance, music, literature and film have also contributed to the public record of our history. Personal stories and political dramas offer cultural insights and provide a contemporary window for understanding. For Indigenous people, art has traditionally been the way we document our history, laws, genealogy, geography, religion and social structures. Art has been central to the social and political life of Indigenous society for millennia. A story connects people to family and place, to animals and plants, shows relationships and teaches through allegory. This story is seamlessly manifested in song, dance and painting.

Historical struggle

In contemporary Australia, the struggle for cultural and political acknowledgment as First Nations peoples continues. It is frequently expressed through arts and sport; from the Yirrkala bark petitions in the earliest land rights cases, Kev Carmodys poignant song From Little Things, Big Things Grow about the Gurindji strike for equal wages, to Cathy Freeman carrying the Aboriginal flag at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Yothu Yindis song Treaty hitting Number One on the popular music charts in the early 1990s. Other examples include bark petitions presented to Australian governments over the centuries documenting our country and story through painting, most significantly during the height of the Mabo case which overturned the legal fiction ‘terra nullius’ and the raging Native Title debates that ensued: noted Aboriginal Australian Rules football player Nicky Winmar’s dignified response to racial slurs from the crowd, the Sea of Hands installation outside Parliament House in Canberra in 1997, and the Bridge Walks for Reconciliation.

When more than 1.2 billion people worldwide watched the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, it was no surprise that one section of the ceremony represented Australia’s Indigenous people. Indigenous Australians play a vital role in Australias national identity. Large events, conferences, business ventures, tourism, diplomatic circles – no matter what the forum, Indigenous Australian art and culture plays a figurehead role for negotiations, providing an entrée to trade talks, selling Australia to international tourists, and generally sparking an interest in the country. This interest has led to a commodification of some aspects of Indigenous cultural practice. This can be seen in the shift from sand painting to bark and canvas, and from ochres to acrylics; from dancing for ceremony to dancing in front of huge crowds in theatres; from performing sacred, secret cultural practices to negotiating the creation of art for worldwide public consumption. For some, this shift is the answer in the search for an economic base; for others, its seen as crass commercialisation of Indigenous culture.

Arguments from both sides have erupted as individuals negotiate the cultural grey areas between the two worlds. What role can a non-Indigenous person play in the creation of an Aboriginal art piece? What motivates the appropriation of Indigenous culture? What responsibility does an individual artist have to their community, especially in the traditional world of collective ownership of story, dance or image? If a recognised artist puts their name to a piece painted by a relative, is this fraud or culturally appropriate?

Authenticity

Discussions of ownership and authenticity abound and Indigenous artists are finding themselves caught between creating and simultaneously attempting to protect their artworks from appropriation and exploitation. In response, bodies such as the Australia Council for the Arts and Australian Film Commission publish regularly updated protocol documents to help steer and stimulate debate on consultation, moral rights and copyright. Both of these funding and policy bodies have dedicated Indigenous units that strategically help develop a growing web of Indigenous artists, companies and institutions. This has been the trend for over three decades as governments and major non-Indigenous institutions (including festival organisers, service organisations, arts centres etc.) respond to national and international interest in Indigenous stories and artists.

Support for the arts

All state and territory governments in Australia and a majority of local councils support Indigenous arts through cash funding and in-kind contributions. Indigenous funding bodies such as Land Councils and the recently defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission recognise the importance of cultural maintenance and innovation and allocate funds for language, dance, visual arts and crafts, story reclamation and maintenance. Many Indigenous artists and companies also receive funding through health, education, justice and employment agencies, helping them use their skills to counteract disadvantages experienced by Indigenous communities. Major art galleries in the country have dedicated gallery space and employ curators specialising in Indigenous art, though not necessarily Indigenous people. Large state theatre companies regularly employ Indigenous artists and stage large-scale productions, either as individuals or in co-production with established companies.

Indigenous art and culture has been a powerful tool to communicate the complex, subtle and sublime nature of Indigenous society to non-Indigenous society. The early corroborrees (ceremonial meetings) performed at Government House in 1788 are part of the national cultural landscape. The emergence of a critical mass of artists is notable between 1988 (the bicentennial anniversary of the British colonisation of Australia) and 1993 (the International Year of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples) saw the emergence of a critical mass of artists, During this time, Australia was reviewing its identity and trying to understand the history of the country and the presence of an Indigenous population. Its worth remembering that Aboriginal people were not counted as Australian citizens until 1967 and a legal acknowledgment of occupancy before the British invasion was not achieved until the 1992 High Court ruling in the Mabo case which overturned a 200 year old legal fiction of terra nullius or empty land.

Conflicting demands

Examples of Indigenous performing arts organisations include Bangarra Dance Theatre (formed in Sydney, 1990), Ilbijerri (Melbourne, 1991), Kooemba Jdarra (Brisbane, 1993) and Yirra Yaakin (Perth, 1993). Visual arts groups include Boomalli (Sydney, 1988), DesArt (Alice Springs, 1990), Tandanya (Adelaide, 1989) and Campfire Group/Fireworks Gallery (Brisbane, 1990). These companies divide their meagre resources between training and professional development, community cultural development, professional performances, advocacy and acting as a community resource. They have to strike a balance between affirming and celebrating a community whose cultural legacy dictates a high level of ownership, fulfilling the expectations of non-Indigenous people locally and overseas, and promoting the aesthetic development of good art. In an extreme scenario, the pressure is on Indigenous artists to create work that is relevant to community, commercialised as a mass produced tourist artefact, and compliant to a dominant western aesthetic notion of high art.

Bangarra, lead by artistic director Stephen Page, is the largest and most highly regarded Indigenous company in the country, regularly touring nationally and internationally and participating in events such as the Sydney Olympics and undertaking co-productions with the Australian Ballet. Its signature fusion of traditional and contemporary dance and striking visuals has built a loyal audience for its work. Other shows which have struck a chord include Stolen (Ilbijerri), a story based on interviews about the stolen generations; Page 8 (Company B Belvoir St), a one-man autobiographical show documenting the life of David Page; The Sapphires (Melbourne Theatre Company), a pastiche musical about four Aboriginal women who entertain troops during the Vietnam war; and Windmill Baby (Yirra Yaakin), a one-woman show based on a community story from regional Western Australia.

In visual arts, many individual artists are assisted through community-controlled arts centres and collectives established throughout the country to advocate on their behalf and that act as intermediaries for galleries, buyers and collectors. Some Indigenous artists work outside this system and create works for galleries and collectionssuch as Brook Andrew, Gordon Bennett, Fiona Foley, Gordon Hookey, Tracey Moffat, Rea, Christian Thompson and Judy Watson.

Indigenous artists have played a role in documenting the world for many millennia, promoting Australia and evolving the worlds oldest living culture, and will continue to do so for many more.

Wesley Enoch is a leading Aboriginal playwright and director and Associate Director of Company B at Belvoir St Theatre.

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w: http://www.belvoir.com.au
w: http://www.undergrowth.org.uk.