The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Education Centre in Cairns is a vocational school of Arts aimed at the development and realisation of Aboriginal artistic talent.
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.
Interview with Norah Nelson and Frank Bronson of Warlukurlangu Artists of Yuendumu prior to their first solo exhibition 'Our Dreaming' at the Dreamtime Gallery Perth Western Australia 18 February - 10 March 1990 Perth Festival.
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.
Original dreaming. Aboriginal people believe that the spirit ancestors watch over us today to ensure the laws are kept and that punishment is inflicted if broken. Photograph of Yuendume women dancing.
In 1988 the artists of Ramingining, a remote Central Arnhem Land community, were responsible for perhaps the most-moving political statement made during Australia’s bicentenary year. Djon Mundine tells UK-based anthropologist Howard Morphy, how this extraordinary monument came to be made.
"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."
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.
Whatever capital city one may visit these days, there will usually be an art gallery exhibiting works from the latest Aboriginal art movement. The demand for Aboriginal painting has probably doubled every year over the past decade and nowhere is this more evident than in central Australia.
Maningrida Art and Craft is synonymous with the best of contemporary traditional Aboriginal bark painting and sculpture, both major individual works and important collections.