A 20th-century image of an anonymous ‘Aboriginal Chief’ becomes an investigation of power, colonialism and queer sexuality in the hands of Brook Andrew.
Articles on Indigenous art
Displaying 101 - 120 of 136 articles
What are we to make of ‘Aboriginalia’: bric-a-brac, tiles, ornaments and artworks - once hugely popular - depicting caricatures of Indigenous people? What if they are collected now in a knowing, ironic way?
Murujuga, or the Burrup Peninsula, is home to over a million rock artworks. But as concern grows about the impact of industrial pollution on the art, the WA government continues to play down the area’s heritage value.
Judy Watson pours ochre and pigment onto unstretched canvases laid on the ground. The puddling and drying created an image of a simple termite mound with a profound connection to country.
For centuries, fishing fleets from Sulawesi regularly visited Australia in search of trepang. Their visits were recorded orally and have been depicted in detailed artworks.
It is important to prosecute militants who destroy antiquities. But ‘everyday’ development - from dams flooding towns to the impact of mining on Indigenous rock art – does vastly more damage to heritage than war.
The first Europeans to arrive in Western Australia were baffled by the strange land they saw. A new exhibition explores the Arcadia artists tried to transpose over native plants and people.
The Maralinga atomic tests were devastating to life and land in Central Australia. Black Mist Burnt Country brings together dozens of artistic responses in a powerful, but somewhat incoherent memorial.
Jonathan Jones uses Aboriginal shields to create a skeleton of Sydney’s Garden Palace, destroyed by fire in 1882. In song, dance and sculpture, he celebrates what has been lost and rediscovered.
A young Aboriginal woman falls in love with an escaped Japanese POW in 1944. Anita Heiss’ new book entwines romance with questions of enmity and friendship: who is fighting whom?
Sydney’s Garden Palace, which burned to the ground in 1882, was a monument to empire’s glory. Indigenous artist Jonathan Jones is now working on an epic exhibition that will explore this historical epoch from an Aboriginal perspective.
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori began painting in her 80s, and over ten years created an extraordinary body of work. Her paintings are more like music and dance – depicting the stories of the Kaiadilt people for the first time.
Can you repatriate a painting? Descendants of Aboriginal painter William Barak ran a crowdsourcing campaign to try to buy back the previously unknown artwork Ceremony.
Too often, TV shows and films present Aboriginal characters as oppressed people. But two new TV series, Cleverman and Songlines on Screen, are a welcome contrast.
The French capital will light up to the sights and sounds of Cleverman, Samson and Delilah, and The Sapphires.
Australia’s first Indigenous superhero can heal like Wolverine and hear the voices of the Dreamtime. Superhero expert Dr Liam Burke sat down with Cleverman cast and crew to talk powers and politics.
Boneta-Marie Mabo’s art responds to a colonial past in which Aboriginal women were fetishised as “black velvet”. But it also celebrates strong women, including her activist grandmother Bonita Mabo.
Museums are cracking open the temperature-controlled, dehumidified display cases and inviting people in. Working with Aboriginal communities is reawakening cultural connections and ancient art forms.
Succeeding generations need to know where they are placed in the unfolding grand narrative of Aboriginal art. Those of us who are not Aboriginal need to understand the complex relationship between settler Australians and the people of the land.
Last week Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm was widely reported as suggesting that people other than Aboriginal Australians may have occupied the Australian continent in the past. At a doorstop…
Top contributors
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Chair in Rock Art Research and Director of the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), Griffith University
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Professorial Research Fellow, Adelaide University
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Honorary Professor, Edith Cowan University
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Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
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Professor, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, Adelaide University
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Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney
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Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design and Society, University of Technology Sydney
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Adjunct professor, Adelaide University
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Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University
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Professor, Australian and Aboriginal History, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Convenor: Indigenous Land & Justice Research Group, UNSW
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Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
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Professor, Director of Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western Australia
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Senior Curator of Australian and First Nations Art, National Gallery of Victoria, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, The University of Melbourne