Art awards on the move

Over the past two decades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards have become an important mechanism both for educating an Australian and international audience on Australia's rich Indigenous heritage, and for fostering an economic environment that allows Indigenous artists to sustain themselves and continue their art.

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Homeland: Sacred Visions and the Settler State

In spite of supporting a vast artworld of curators, critics and collectors, the 'otherness' of Aboriginal art in the Western canon persists, fuelled by white settler reluctance to acknowledge history. The valorisation of the life and work of Emily Kame Kngwarray is one of the great imponderables of our time. Her extreme age, traditional origins, style of painting and prodigious output were the causes. Most significantly she demonstrated the possibility of human intimacy with landscapes.

Marcia Langton

Y.Y. Gibson Tjungurrayi

A tribute to the Pintupi painter Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi born c.1928 in the region of Kintore and died in 1998. He was a strongly traditional man and after migrating to Papunya he was encouraged by Geoff Bardon to take up painting. His works, mainly the Tingari stories to do with the ceremonial stories of ancestral men, were acquired by collections in Australia and internationally.

Richard (Dick) Kimber

David Malangi

Tributes to two painters from Ramingining in Arnhem Land, George Milpurrurru and David Malangi who helped to place this region on the map. Paintings were included in the 1979 Sydney Biennale. The iconography, style of painting and the public response to their work and interaction with the wider art world is discussed. Both of these major artists died during the 1990s after careers of around four decades.

Michael O'Ferrall

Fair Trade in Central Australia

Without regulation in a market there will always be carpetbaggers. Warlukurlangu Artists was set up by a group of artists to protect them from this. DESART, the peak body for Central Australian art producers, in 2000 has initiated a Central Australian Indigenous Art Label which aims to educate consumers and lead the way by example rather than police a market.

Susan Congreve

Emily Kame Kngwarray

A tribute to Emily Kame Kngwarray the celebrated painter from Sandover near the central desert community of Utopia, who died in 1996 after a meteoric career during which she produced 3,000 works in 8 years. Although her concern was to paint and thus protect her country (her main subject was the pencil yam after the seeds and flowers of which - kam - she was named) she was acclaimed by some as a major abstract painter of the 20th century. She won a major creative fellowship and was posthumously shown at the Venice Biennale.

Jenny Green

The 'Aboriginal Art Scandals' Scandal

A chronicle of a spate of so-called 'Aboriginal art scandals' which happened in the late 1990s, some of which involved white artists passing off work as Aboriginal. The custom amongst indigenous artists of family members working with an artist on paintings creates problems for the western art market and leads to claims of fraud. The media is often guilty of distorting and sensationalising events. The newly launched Label of Authenticity enters the scene.

Vivien Johnson

Printmaking Gains Momentum

The first Aboriginal prints were linocuts made in jail by Kevin Gilbert. By the late 1970s Aboriginal printmaking in collaboration with print studios had begun. The Canberra School of Art, Port Jackson Press and now Northern Editions have been catalysts for the many enthusiasts at the Yirrkala, Papunya, Tiwi, Munupi, Oenpelli, Ernabella etc communities and workshops are run in remote centres at their request. Some like Lockhart River are now setting up their own facilities.

Basil Hall

Indigenous.arts.online - Virtual Sales of Actual Art? Profit or Promotion

The obstacles to Indigenouse people selling their art on the internet are many and daunting for most. Some pioneer groups like Boomalli and Warlukurlangu Artists have web sites, but in the near future Indigenous art sales on line will be an accepted way of operating. Some web sites are listed.

Chris Lee

Queenie McKenzie

A tribute to the Western Australian artist Queenie McKenzie who died in 1998. She lived her whole life in the Texas Downs area and before taking up painting in old age she worked on the cattle station there and was a stalwart supporter of 'women's law business' and language. She was a confident and prolific painter mostly of her country but sometimes of social topics. When her work was recognised by the art market she shared her material success generously with her adopted family.

Patricia Vinnicombe

Contemporary Voices: Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery in the SA Museum

The new Aboriginal Cultures Gallery at the SA Museum has set a new standard of excellence in interpretation of historical material. The use of film, video and computer terminals carrying extensive information from songs and interviews to historical documentation adds to the rich texture of the displays. Contemporary Voices is a set of filmed interviews conducted by museum staff in the six months before the opening of the new Gallery

Franchesca Cubillo

Art in Warmun community

A new art centre at Warmun in the Kimberly of WA is a showcase for the talents of the artists of the area, some of whom used to work on big pastoral stations in this remote area. Celebrated founders of the centre were Rover Thomas and Queenie Mckenzie. There are tensions between their interests and those of white landowners in relation to access to 'country' being denied. Young people are unable to have a traditional education and are becoming westernised through videos.

Susan Hartley

Labelled - Buyer Be Aware

The introduction of a Label of Authenticity has some problems for contemporary urban Aboriginal artists who feel once again that they are being asked to confirm their status. Another issue is that any indigenous person can apply for the Label regardless of the integrity of their art practice. Is the Label too blunt an instrument to be useful to most artists?

Brenda L Croft

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