The Ballad of Jimmy Governor

Emeritus Indigenous curator Djon Mundine wrote this essay on the occasion of a production of Posts in the Paddock a play about Jimmy Governor by the company My Darling Patricia. The performance included members of the both families involved. Mundine addresses questions of familial and national forgiveness.

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A place of our own

This conversation between curator Hetti Perkins and co-editor Daniel Browning looks at Perkins call for a National Institution, or Centre, of Indigenous Art, which might become, as she puts it, “a living space that breathes culture”.

Daniel Browning and Hetti Perkins

FotoFreo 2012: The City of Fremantle Festival of Photography

Perth, Western Australia 17 March – 15 April 2012

Thelma John

The Ghost Net art project

Program Director for Ghost Nets Australia Sue Ryan describes how the Ghost Net Art Project began and what it is all about - people using eco-trash to share stories and express their creativity.

Sue Ryan

I Forgive You: Bindi Cole's Seventy Times Seven

Bruce McLean

Parallel Collisions: 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

2 March to 29 April 2012 Art Gallery of South Australia Curators: Natasha Bullock, Alexie Glass-Kantor

Chloe Langford

Presences in the Riverland: Nici Cumpston

Una Rey

Science Fictions: Tricky Walsh

Bett Gallery, Hobart 9 – 31 March 2012

Craig Judd

Culture Warriors as cultural diplomacy

Senior lecturer at the College of Fine Arts (CoFA), University of New South Wales, Gail McDonald analyses the exhibition Culture Warriors, the first National Indigenous Art Triennial curated by Brenda L. Croft, that travelled to Washington in 2009. McDonald argues that, rather than diplomatic blandness, real political confrontation was present in the exhibition.

Gay McDonald

Tandanya: the case for home

The National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, known as Tandanya, was established in 1989 in Adelaide. Philip Watkins, Artistic and Cultural Director of Tandanya, 2006-2011, said: “This is Tandanya’s role – to show our world through our eyes, to tell our stories and to sing our songs with our voices.” Curator, educator and writer Sara White reviews Tandanya's 23 years of art and asks "Does Australia need more Tandanyas?"

Sara White

Restless – Adelaide International 2012

Curator: Victoria Lynn Flinders University City Gallery Samstag Museum of Art Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia Australian Experimental Art Foundation March 2012

Stephanie Radok

For architecture and country

Torres Strait Islander Kevin O'Brien, who is commissioning and directing an independent exhibition called 'Finding Country' at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 running from August to 25 November 2012, writes about an Aboriginal architecture that is not about buildings shaped like native animals.

Kevin O'Brien

On the ground with Our Mob in 2011

Terry Cleary was the Statewide Indigenous Community Artists Development (SICAD) Program Manger with Ananguku Arts and Culture from 2009-2011. He reflects on the potential power of Our Mob when it works.

Terry Cleary

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