Challenging Indigenous identity fraud in academia must name and focus explicitly on structures of whiteness, white entitlement and settler colonialism so we don’t recreate the harms of past policies.
Kate Harding, Carnarvon 2020 (detail). Exhibition view of D Harding with Kate Harding: Through a lens of visitation at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.
Photo: David James
The Productivity Commission has proposed inauthentic Indigenous art should be labelled. But ‘fake art’ is only part of the problem.
Tracker Nat, holding his hat on the far left, with Paul Hasluck standing next to him, holding Nat’s shield in this picture from 1958.
National Archives of Australia. NAA: A1200, L28199.
During the 1950s, Nat made hundreds of carvings. Today, many of these are likely to be lying unidentified in people’s homes and in museum basements.
The bark painting depicting a barramundi that Namadbara created for Spencer at Oenpelli in 1912 and that he identified in the interview with Lance Bennett in 1967, now in Museums Victoria Spencer/Cahill Collection (object X 19909).
The Kakadu region has gone through immense transformation throughout history. How can archaeological food scraps tell us about how the First Australians adapted?
Josie Maralngurra touching her hand stencil made when she was around 12. In the background are three white barramundi fish figures with red line-work also created by her father Djimongurr.
Photograph by Fiona McKeague, copyright Parks Australia
Australia’s stunning galleries of rock art are vast repositories of knowledge that can teach us much.
Installation view of Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala from 17 December 2021 to 25 April 2022 at NGV.
International, Melbourne.
Photo: Tom Ross
Bark painting in Yirrkala is a tradition of antiquity – but it is constantly reinvented, as this stunning exhibition of contemporary women’s work attests.
Cherine Fahd, Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook, 2021-2022. Produced by C3West on behalf of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in partnership with Parramatta Artists’ Studios, an initiative of the City of Parramatta.
Courtesy of the artist
Three stories from Australia and the UK exploring the role of art in helping people deal with the challenges life throws at them. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
Being Indigenous is more than just genealogy. Here Lorralene Whiteye from the Ojibway Nation checks her hair in a mirror before the start of a healing ceremony, held by Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, to commemorate the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Toronto.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler
In recent years, some prominent people have been called out for falsely claiming Indigenous identity. Why would someone falsely claim an identity? And what does it mean to be Indigenous?
The author examining pictographs in 60th Unnamed Cave, Tennessee.
Alan Cressler
For thousands of years, Native Americans left their artistic mark deep within caves in the American Southeast. It wasn’t until 1980 that these ancient visual expressions were known to archaeologists.
Indigenous dancers from WA’s remote Kimberley region standing on the Ngurrara Canvas.
Kimberley Land Council/AAP
The cancellation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community events such as NAIDOC, but the continuation of sporting events, reminds us sport is prioritised over art and culture.
Adventurer Francis Birtles in his car with a man identified as Indigenous artist Nayombolmi.
National Library of Australia
One was a celebrity adventurer, the other was a skilled Indigenous artist who painted everything in sight. A new look at old photographs confirms their meeting.
Painting of a raider on horseback (bottom right) with a musket and domestic stock. A ‘rain-animal’ (top right) was likely summoned to wash away the raiders’ tracks.
Courtesy of Sam Challis and Brent Sinclair-Thomson
Runaway slaves joined indigenous Khoe-San people and raided colonial farms. The rock art they left in their hideouts tells a fascinating story.
A slide by Gordon H. Woodhouse to accompany a 1901 lecture by his father Clarence entitled ‘exploration and development of Australia’.
State Library of Victoria
Exclusion has been central to utopian ideas of Australia since before Federation. It still lingers. To progress in this climate-challenged century, Australia’s foundational wrongs must be righted.
A woman walks past a mural in Vancouver, B.C. The power of public art is its ability to turn artistic practice into a social action.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marissa Tiel
When public art pairs artistic expression with community engagement, it can honour the diverse communities that share public spaces and spur important conversations.
Rock paintings from the main gallery at Djulirri in Namunidjbuk clan estate, showing traditional Aboriginal motifs as well as European boats, airplanes, and more.
Photo by Sally K May.
Pictures of boats and ships in rock art at the northwestern tip of Australia show the European incursions from the 1800s — but also the much earlier and lesser known sea trade with southeast Asia.
Gwoja Tjungurrayi features on our $2 coin and was the first living Australian to feature on a postage stamp. It turns out he made his stamp debut much earlier.
The Torch artist and Barkindji man Trevor Mitchell at work on a painting.
The Torch
With 350 artworks created by 320 Indigenous artists who are in or recently released from prison, The Torch is making a difference to how people are seen and how they see themselves.
December 1972: Billy Miargu, with his daughter Linda on his arm, and his wife Daphnie Baljur. In the background, the newly painted kangaroo.
Photograph by George Chaloupka, now in Parks Australia's Archive at Bowali.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne