The people of Utopia have been making important visual images for thousands of years, on their bodies and ceremonial objects. In 1977 these images leapt onto lengths of silk via the batik technique and it was in this medium that the women of Utopia went on to establish a reputation for themselvs with their powerful images and distinctive style.
The Aboriginal National Theatre Trust Limited arose out of Forums of Aboriginal Performing Artists, Playwrights and Technicians attending the first National Black Playwrights Conference held at the Australian National University in Canberra 1987.
Two people suspended in a soundscape - a space punctuated by a stark and corrosive sound. The wail of a dingo, an owl, the grating beat of an iron lung, a gasp, a cry for breath and above all a cacophony of memory.
At the 1988 Conference in Broome the author spoke of the growing unlawful use of Aboriginal art by T shirt companies and the fashion industry generally.
Narrangunnawali was an exhibition by Aboriginal artists from Canberra and the surrounding region mounted by the Canberra Contemporary Art Space 31 August - 23 September 1989.
"From the time that whites arrived in Tasmania and up until 1983 Aboriginal performing arts especially theatre arts, had become almost as extinct as whites would have people believe Tasmanian Aborigines were. Not so!"
"How many people still think that up north or in the centre is the only place for real Aboriginal art. You know when you work with it, selling it, buying it, you hear it all the time."