Located in the University of Adelaide in South Australia the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music was set up in 1972 in order that many aboriginal people both urban and tribal may develp effective skills of communicating their cultural, social, political and economic feelings through music to Australian people and the world at large.
The Power Institute at the University of Sydney ran a 10 week program devised by Susan Simons and Bronwyn Bancroft of panel discussions, presentations, films/videos and seminars exploring many of the issues of Aboriginal art in Australian society.
There can be few artists who live and work in such isolation as does Jimmy Pike. His isolation is not merely geographical, though our camp on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert is two and a half hours' drive in dry weather from Fitzroy Crossing and inaccessible in dry weather, but also social and artistic.
Margie West talks to NE Arnhem Land artist Banduk Marika about artists working in Yirrkala, an Aboriginal community. She addresses traditional ceremonies today, the appropriate use of traditional designs, payment for work, copyright, and working to redress environmental damage to the beaches and lands by regenerating native trees and plants.
In every area of the arts where Aborigines are participating there is an intense surge of creative vitality. Once could call it a renaissance period. When I began writing poetry, Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonucul) was the only recognised poet.
Located in an old terrace house in Cope Street Redfern, is the voice of the Aboriginal Community in Sydney. The terrace house is not unlike any other in the inner city. However with the Koori colours on one wall and the music of Koori bands blasting out from its speakers up on the balcony the house is fairly outstanding.
If the 70s is remembered as a period of nurture for Aboriginal art, the 1980s will certainly be remembered as the decade of its dramatic development...there has been an eflorescence of community based enterprises in the remote areas of Australia.