Deep Time in Sydney
The tendency to conflate the quite distinct Aboriginal worlds of Australia’s south-east and its remote north is heroically resisted at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. It’s almost certainly Read More
Not the APYACC
“Only Black hands on Black art” proclaims the Harvey Galleries website provocatively. For they’re playing on a series of articles in The Australian newspaper apparently revealing the substantial work of Read More
FAIRS FARE
“The centres sustain artists,” says the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair’s chair, Ursula Raymond. “They provide employment, they provide a place for people to be able to go and make their Read More
APYACC Part 7
The saga continues with news that the Indigenous Art Code (IartC) has terminated the APY Art Centre Collective’s membership of the Code. As the IartC is the pre-eminent ethical body Read More
IS proppaNOW OCURRENT?
It’s not often that a show garlanded with a US$25,000 prize from America lands in our humble Sydney galleries. But OCCURRENT AFFAIR, the first group show by Brisbane’s political provocateurs, Read More
Mixed News from Mparntwe
Remember that we’ve been promised a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs for many a year now, well it doesn’t look as though it’ll actually appear until 2028. This Read More
Dark Emu Debate Rides Again
It’s very odd. All parties involved seemed to say that they are seeking a calm and rational debate about Bruce Pascoe’s amazingly popular 2011 book, but then they go throwing Read More
Just Soak in Yuldea
Bangarra Dance Theatre – wasn’t it once Bangarra Aboriginal Dance Theatre? - has a new boss in Frances Rings. She’s a former dancer and creator of seven works before with Read More
The Agony of Assimilation
I wrote down the word “terrible” at the end of my Sydney Film Festival screening of ‘The New Boy’, Warwick Thornton’s latest Indigenous film. And I didn’t mean the film; Read More
Radical Reverend
The words Sovereignty and Treaty immediately conjure up associations with Melbourne’s feisty Senator Lydia Thorpe. But in Arnhemland, there’s a Yolngu elder with a far more developed set of demands Read More
APYACC Part 6
Today, the Council of the National Gallery of Australia has announced its decision to postpone the Ngura Pulka – Epic Country exhibition which was intended to show the works of Read More
A Significant Loss – Bob Edwards 1930-2023
A man almost written out of history in his life is receiving due recognition in death. Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards may have been the first Director of the Aboriginal Arts Read More
Red Ochre Time
Just delivered on NITV are this year’s First Nations Arts & Culture Awards - headed by the Red Ochres. And the two top winners – one male, one female – Read More
Dr G Yunupingu
The word Yunupingu In Yolngu means “the rock that stands against time”. An apt description for the man who lead a dynasty of doughty fighters and artists in North East Read More
APYACC Part 5
The world is now aware that there’s a crisis in Aboriginal art. Two American-based international newsletters and Britain’s important Art Newspaper have all reported on the belated decision by three Read More
Tragedy in Adelaide
A tragedy looms in Adelaide as the current ALP State government appears to be pulling back on the well-developed plans of the previous Liberal government to build a nationally significant Read More
EXISTENTIAL LIMBO
“A pared-to-the-bleached-bones existential thriller”.. The Guardian review of Ivan Sen’s latest film Limbo sums it up awfully well. The unworldly underground/overground landscape of Cooper Pedy shot in black and white Read More
Kunmanara (Pepai) Carroll
Last month I wrote about the exhibition at Manly Art Gallery which featured Blak Douglas paintings and both pottery and art by the late Pepai Jangala Carroll. I mentioned a Read More
First Nations Take Over the AGNSW
Wow, was my headline last time prescient! I touted, "First Nations Take Over the AGNSW Prizes" last week. And now that we know and have met the winners, I can Read More
Finalists for the 40th NATSIAAs
63 finalists have been announced in the 2023 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Australia’s richest art awards, presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Read More