Essay

I'm doing my essay about how Aboriginals have been portrayed in film. I'm interested in this because nearly all films are made by non indiginous people. so the history of Aboriginals on film can be quite wrapped. And the way they have been depicted in film has changed with time along the same time line of how the general publics view on Aboriginals has changed.
Some books i have been reading at the moment are

Australia Cinema After Mabo - Felicity Collins

Aboriginal Film and Video Guide - Christine Koziel

Sites Of Difference - Karen Jennings

torres strait islander dance machine

Bamboo Hammerhead Shark Headdress

Island Dance is one of the major forms of creative expression on the Torres Strait Islands. Dance machines, head-dresses and masks used in Island Dance are unique to the Torres Strait Islands. Ken Thaiday from Erub (Darnley Island ) is the best known maker of dance machines.

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks on Q and A

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, when she was 17 stared in the 1955 film Jedda about an Aboriginal girl adopted into a white family. Last night she was on the ABC panel show Q & A.

She was asked how living standards of Aboriginals have changed in the 50 years since Jedda was made. Her reply was “nothing has changed”, I’m sure if she said that to be dramatic or she really believes that. But I think it is a bit irresponsible to be so melodramatic on such an important. Surely you can make the point that Aboriginal people still have a low living standard than the rest of Australian society without being so dramatic.

SA Museum

Many artefacts in the SA museums like this bark painting had an inscription reading how it was collected. 

The bark painting read

Collected in 1960 during South Australian Museum expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

This got me thinking about the ethics behind collecting artefacts from native people around the world. The first question I think of is who owned these items before they were collected. Secondly how did the museum staff come about to owning these items. Were they simply taken, or bought, or found abandoned. If they were abandoned you could say fair enough no one really owned them. If the they were just taken how can that be ethical at all. If they were bought it starts to get into a grey area, was the communisation right and how can you judge what these items are really worth. 

But you could also make an argument that even if these items were collected in an  unethical way, does the fact that these items help preserve a history of a culture and educate the masses. Can that override the bad taste of how these items were collected?

Tindale Map

N B Tindale’s tribal map first published in 1940 and revised in 1974. Through a lifetime of fieldwork and consultation Tindale demonstrated that Aboriginal people held a strong territorial connection to the lands they occupied, this was radical in its fundamental implication that Australia was not terra nullius.

Yuendumu School Doors

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart

These works, painted in 1983, reference more than 200 significant ceremonial sites in Warlpiri and Anmatyerre territory and represent one of earliest examples of Aboriginal artists successfully transferring their ancient ground paintings to a large-scale modern medium.

And The Winner Is

Connection To The Land And The Soul

I’ve found that traditional Aboriginal art does have to main themes running through it, the land and spirituality. I think this is why I’m struggling to really get involved with it. If there is two things I have no connection with in my life it’s a connection with the land and a connection with spirituality. The spirituality is easily explained, I simply do not believe in any higher being or any type of force that can not be scientifically explained. When someone is talking about their spirituality I’m simply not moved at all. People may think thats cold but everyone has a right to believe in what they want.

The land is harder to explained, especially when my family has a long history with it. I come from a long history of farmers that have been farming in Australia since the early 1800s. So I guess you could say I have an ancestral connection to the land (obvious no way near as long as the 40,000 years though). But I’am the first generation to break away from that tradition because I simply have no interested in the land. When it comes to art I also have no interest with the land. Just because I say I have no interest in the land doesn’t mean I’m hostile to it, it’s I just don’t think about. This may very well change in the future but at the moment the art I make and like has no connection to spirituality or the land. 

White Guilt

White guilt does seem to be an outdated term that only crusty old conservatives use, but is there any truth behind it. 

In my own life I do I think there is a touch of it. In the last past I talked about being mugged by a group of Aboriginal guys. I do think I forgave them more easily than if it was a group of white guys. When someone comes up to me to ask for money I’m probably more like to give it if they were Aboriginal. I don’t think any of these actions are on a conscious level, I think there are feeling that come from how I was raised. When your growing up and your taught how horribly Aboriginals have been treated in the past and how horrible sections of the community still live, surely this would leave an impression that is deep ingrained in you. 

So are some people subconsciously nicer about Aboriginal art than they would to non Aboriginal art. Because during this course I’ve noticed that I have only read art critics essays were they have nothing but praise for a work. The only negative articles I would find would be by conservative people who have some other deep down problem about themselves their try to work out.

How much does our upbringing and political views affect our viewing of Aboriginal art?

DOROTHY NAPANGARDI

Mina Mina - 2004

Spinifex -  2003

When visiting the Flinders city gallery exhibition 'Spirit in the land' the artist that spoke to me the most was the work by Dorothy Napangardi. Probably has nothing to do with how she meant for the work to be enjoyed but hey on any level these works are daunting and intimidating. 

My Experiences With Aboriginal people

I guess my life is very similar to many white suburban Australians, I don’t really know any Aboriginal people. I definitely haven't tried to make it this way but circumstances have made it be that way. I went to school in the Adelaide hills and during primary school and high school I don’t remember there ever being one Aboriginal kid in any of my classes. Where I worked for fiver years there was not one employe that was of Aboriginal descent. And at Uni there are no Aboriginal people in any of my classes. To purposely seek someone out because of their race seems a bit perverse to me. 

Without having any friendship or working relationship with anyone of Aboriginal decent means my experiences have been largely negative. The biggest event in my life that has involved Aboriginals was about five years ago. Me and my friend had parked our car by the torrens river at the back of Adelaide Uni. When we were heading back to it, a group of Aboriginal youth tried to mug us. I was lucky only to get punched in the face a few times but my friend had his arm broken. As this is my only ever experience of violence of any kind it has left a major impact me. Living on South Terrace on a regular bases I get homeless people (many Aboriginal) asking for money or just get general abusive behaviour. As I suffer terribly from anxiety these experience again have quite a big impact on me. 

Although most of these experiences have been negative I absolutely don’t think this represents Aboriginal people at all. As any descent human being should do, I judge people as individuals, not on their race. 

Emily Kngwarreye

Emily Kngwarreye - Big Yam Dreaming - 1995

Can you enjoy a painting if you don’t know or can’t understand it’s meaning. Well i do love this painting, but I know nothing of the story or meaning behind it. To be brutally honest I kind of don’t want to know. I have my reasons for enjoying this work art. I’m sure the way I appreciate this painting would have nothing to do with the story behind it. 

I guess what i’m trying to say is like with a song someone might write and has a very person meaning to the musician but to millions of other people they put their own emotion values onto the song and make it about something very special to them that has nothing to do with the original meaning of the song. I think the same can be done with any other art work.

Aboriginals In Mainstream Film and Tv

When I say mainstream film and TV, I mean the drivel that is spewed out on a nightly bases to the masses i.e.. reality shows, soap operas. I can’t say I watch those shows but it’s impossible to ignore the ads and there general presence they have. The point I want to make is pop culture is the only culture many people get in their lives. I know I’m sorry, that sounds like something an elitist knob would say, but I love pop culture as well so I’m not. 

The presence of any indigenous people on these programs is minimal. I’m sure the presence is even less behind the camera as well. So the point i want to make is Aboriginals are dominating the ‘high culture’ aspect of Australian society but when it comes to majority of culture consumed by Australians, an Aboriginal presence is still very much in the background. 

Traditional Indigenous Art - High Art or Outsider Art?

I do not have an answer to this question. And I don’t mean to use the term outsider art in a derogatory way.

But the question I was asking myself is can art be classified as high art if the artist has no art training. One of the first things I learnt at art school was that without an art education the art world would not take you seriously. So if an elderly Aboriginal just starts painting without ever having an art education should it be classified as high art. Well I guess the argument would be that the individual has an accesses to a knowledge that is more or less equivalent to the knowledge that any other artist has. 

The problem that I have is I come from a very westernised way of thinking and viewing the world. So my instant view that it has to be outsider art. But the majority of the western world does consider it high art. I’ve spent hours thinking about this and I think I have come to a realisation. 

The question does just come down to labels. The concept of having different levels of hierarchy in the art world just sounds stupid. Why are we so determined to put labels on everything? I think the concept of hight art is a term that would only be used in the art market anyway. 

Aboriginal Art Centres

Traditional Aboriginal art has today been broken into three areas, Central Australia, Kimberley and Ahnhem land. 

The Teaching Of White Colonisation At Uni SA

I have to say when starting this course I feared I would get angered with the way it was going to be taught. Luckily for now my fears have not come true, let me explain.

Last semester I was studying Australian Art : Images, Issues and Identity, a course that focused on Australian artist from a non indigenous background. During course the history of white colonisation was brought up many times. My problem was the very over simplified way they taught this. To briefly some up how it was taught would go like this, White People = bad/evil, Aboriginal People = good/have never done anything bad ever. Now I think the horrors of white colonisation should be at the forefront of any teaching of Australian history, but it should not be taught how it was last semester, by over simplifying and dumbing it down. By lumping hundreds of thousands of people into two groups is no way to teach history. I see this as almost as bad as being an ignorant racist, because that’s what racists do, over simplify and lump people into groups.

But i’m pleasantly surprised that I have not encountered this during this course.

Tracey Moffatt's Photography

Tracey Moffatt - Scarred for Life - 1994

Tracey Moffatt takes the small yet traumatic humiliations of daily life, the feelings of inadequacy which may indeed scar us for life.

These themes are universal, but seem very poinant when placed in the setting of the 1970s with Aboriginal youth. I can only imagine that racism was still a part of daily life back in the 1970s. So by taking the humilations that a youth would have to go throw by their parent and peers and placing that in a contex where a soicitey dosn't fully accept them as well. 

Tracey Moffatt's Films

Tracy Moffatt - Night Cries - 1989

Tracey Moffatt’s films push forward the rights of Aboriginals to have an equal participation in contemporary Australia. She reassess the history between black and white Australians, giving attention to the legacy of Australian policies of protection and assimilation. Her films challenge previous styles of representation of Aboriginals in film, partially Aboriginal women. Moffatt does not take the easy way out and only show positive images of Aboriginal people, what she does is try to make her characters real as possible. Moffatt brought Aboriginal characters to screen that had never been shown until that time and shown them to have as many emotions, flaws and qualities as any other person shown on film in Australia. 

And the ignorance begins

My knowledge of Aboriginal art is very limited. Maybe after 368 pages i can change that