On Wangkumarra land, in the corner-country near the borders of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, stands an ancient stone arrangement. It has been placed to the side of a huge complex, rivalling…
A souvenir stand in the Canary Islands displaying boomerangs (on the right).
fabcom/flickr
The production of fake First Nations art is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cultural appropriation. From ‘didge therapy’ to the overuse of words like ‘deadly’ here’s a (subjective) guide to what to avoid.
The Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, contains over a million individual works of rock art by the Yaburara people.
Shutterstock.com
From 30,000-year-old cave paintings to The Man From Snowy River, wild horses have always been part of human culture. As Australia debates what to do with ‘brumbies’ in mountain environments, it’s time to reconsider their place.
Yothu Yindi performing in 2000. Their songs offered hope and strength to generations of Yolŋu people.
Dean Lewins/AAP
The songs of Tribal Voice offered hope and strength to generations of Yolŋu people and gave audiences elsewhere a rare insight into the resolve and aspirations of Indigenous Australia.
A watercolour of a dingo, pre-1793, from John Hunter’s drawing books.
By permission of The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, London.
In Indigenous culture, dingoes were prized as companions, garments and hunting aids. Europeans later tried to tame dingoes as ‘pets’ but their wild nature has prevailed.
Rosie Tasman Napurrurla, Warlpiri 2002, Ngurlu Jukurrpa (‘Grass Seed; Bush Grain Dreaming’), line etching on Hahnemuhle paper.
Warnayaka Art Centre, Lajamanu, and Aboriginal Art Prints Network, Sydney
The theme of this year’s NAIDOC week is “Our Languages Matter”. Aboriginal languages under threat across Australia. Read a Warlpiri introduction to Dreamtime and The Dreaming.
A close up from Michael Jensen’s Pintupi and Anmatyerr artists in Men’s Painting Room (circa August 1972).
Michael Jensen
The Men’s Painting Room - a Nissen hut in the government settlement of Papunya - is Australian art’s most important atelier. A new form of creative expression happened here.
Who is portrayed as Australian? ‘Opening of the first parliament’ Tom Roberts c.1903.
Wikipedia
Remote mountain regions are closer to the climate problem than we think, particularly in the context of safeguarding essential ecosystem services such as safe and adequate water.
Policies and services designed to protect Aboriginal children’s cultural connections are not being properly implemented.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Alwin Chong, University of South Australia and Fiona Arney, University of South Australia
New reports show a widespread lack of care for the cultural needs of many of the 19,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out-of-home care.
From a battle over an oil pipeline in the American mid-west to small Australian communities fighting for survival, Indigenous people are harnessing social media to take their stories global.
Joe Brusky/Flickr
Indigenous people make up small percentages of the population in many countries – but using social media, Indigenous voices can be heard worldwide. Here are a dozen deadly Australians worth following.
Balga is the Noongar name for the grass tree - seen here in the Flinders Ranges.
Melanie Ball/AAP
Words from 100 Indigenous languages are in the new edition of the Australian National Dictionary – reflecting a heightened interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
Television is embracing Indigenous people as more than victims in a white story.
Supplied
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.
David Gulpilil as Jagamarra Jurunba, Mark Weaver as Bellyup, Dougie McCale as George and Cameron Wallaby as Pete in Satellite Boy.
A Satellite Films production Photo by Matt Nettheim SAB
Magnolia Maymuru, the Northern Territory’s representative at the Miss World national finals, is a trailblazer. But will she escape the racialised exoticism that has long plagued Indigenous women?
Uluru’s traditional owners have asked for decades that tourists not climb their sacred site. Parks Australia has committed to closing the climb – but only when some ambitious goals have been met.
A picture of strength: lifelong activist Bonita Mabo OA in front of her portrait as a young woman, which features in her granddaughter Boneta-Marie Mabo’s first solo exhibition.
Josef Ruckli, courtesy of the State Library of Queensland
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.