Published 01 December 2019
Published 01 March 2019
Looks at the art practice of Maree Clarke.
Painting movement at Papunya 1971-75 one of the few positive offshoots of the Government's Assimilation Policy. Senior men began to paint on boards and made murals for the school, initially showing sacred secret material, later self-censored. Paintings use complex patterning and dotting to describe formation of land by Ancestors, natural features and travel.
Published June 1990
Paddy inherited his unique style of painting form his father and father before him. It is the old 'style'.
In 1989, Jon Altman, Chris McGuigan and Peter Yu were asked by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs to look into the viability of the Aboriginal Arts and Crafts industry, to point to ways to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and to advise which government programs could give cost effective support to the industry and to recommend managing and marketing strategies.
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.
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.
"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!"
Until recently, Pitjantjatjara communities had very limited acces to or influence from mainstream media, communications, technology and information systems. English is still a foreign language to most of the population and functional levels of literacy are very low.
Jujurrpa is a Warlpri word meaning Dreaming and it is the Dreamtime stories that are depicted on the canvases of a group of Warlpri, Pitjantjatjara, Luritja and Anmatyerre women from the Alice Springs area.
Looks at the works of West Australian artist Shane Pickett.
It's now early September 1989 and Aboriginal Rock Bands from the Northern Territory and interstate are travelling by any means possible to Darwin for the Sing Loud Play Strong 2nd Festival of Aboriginal Rock Music.
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.
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.
