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