List of Resource Material for the Arts in Multicultural Australia
A great starting point for more research in this area. List prepared by Dr Helen Andreoni, of the School of Aboriginal and Multicultural Studies, University of New England.
Palimpsest...Vision of a multicultural Australia. An exhibition co-ordinated by the Multicultural Arts Trust of South Australia, December 1990 Chesser Gallery Adelaide. Great colour photos.
Looks at the 'National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia' launched by the Prime Minister in 1989 which included provision for the development of a plan for collecting institutions such as museums, art museums, libraries and archives to reflect Australia's cultural diversity in their activities and practices.
Exhibition Review: Josie Starrs, Margaret Worth, Fay Poole and Barbara Zerbini
Experimental Art Foundation
Adelaide South Australia
June 1990 and touring to regional galleries.
This is a new notion for me. I'm sure it is a term familiar to most readers. However, just in case, this is my version of what it means. To understand it you need to appreciate that there is an hierarchical order of metals determined by their 'nobility'. A sacrifical anode is less a noble metal which is used to attract impurities away from more noble metals that you do not wish to be eroded. Thus if you wish to avoid erosion in your copper boiler, you can put a sacrificial anode in the water which will attract the impurities in the water and keep them away from your noble boiler. The link between multicultural artworkers and sacrificial anodes is entirely my own!
Since the birth of Australian television, non-anglo Australians have suffered from an acute case of foreign accent syndrome. Unfortunately 35 years on they are still suffering, not only from bad accents usually spoken by Anglo actors playing NESBs, but from the dearth of authentic storylines and subsequently the lack of accurate representation of NESBs on our TV and screens.
Cultural diversity is crucial. Film makers may be unlike (in terms of cultural background) but they are also alike (in terms of their value.) In the area of independent film, there are a number of films which deal with multicultural themes and/or give non Anglo film-makers the opportunity to express themselves. One hopes that mainstream film can take up on this lead, because, from all apparent evidence, it remains sorely imbalanced.
The Broome Mix is useful to bear in mind when thinking on all things multicultural - cultural diversity. In Broome that's culture - a mix of Aboriginal, Asian and European.