The “Festival do Boi-Bumbá” changed the fate of Parintins, Brazil. Its success shows the crucial role that cultural festivals play in isolated territories that often lack material infrastructure.
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Articles on Indigenous arts
Displaying 1 - 20 of 32 articles
A new book exploring the history of Yothu Yindi examines the influential band’s humane vision of mutual respect and harmony.
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.
Some 17,000 years ago, Aboriginal artists often depicted kangaroos, fish, birds, reptiles, echidnas and plants — especially yams.
Eight artists use textiles to investigate history, self and place in a new exhibition that draws on rich histories, but could use more contextual information in its presentation.
Mukurtu: an online dilly bag for keeping Indigenous digital archives safe.
The Conversation71.5 MB (download)
Mukurtu - Warumungu word meaning 'dilly bag' or a safe keeping place for sacred materials - is an online system helping Indigenous people conserve photos, songs and other digital archives.
Progress, in historical terms, has so often meant clearing places of their native inhabitants – both human and non-human.
Indigenous theatre and storytelling provides an opportunity for all Canadians to honour the directives of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Canadian government should support this mission.
Clay Stories, a travelling exhibition, showcases ceramic art from Indigenous artists across the country. It is a triumphant display of specific stories and Dreamings, standing against cultural and political amnesia.
Do you read Australia’s First Nations writers? If not, why not? The time is well overdue for non-indigenous Australians to engage with the original inhabitants of the country.
Aboriginal stand-up comedy is thriving and no topic, it seems, is off limits. As the Melbourne International Comedy Festival opens, here’s the lowdown on Indigenous humour.
A strengthening movement of Indigenous designers and developers is working to show Indigenous cultures, teachings, languages and ways of knowing through video games.
A development festival for Indigenous Australian playwrights showcased a range of stories: from the sharply comic tale of a woman hunting for her wayward husband to a powerful exploration of prison violence.
From My Island Home to Treaty, Indigenous musical luminaries gathered in Sydney on Tuesday to sing classic songs marking the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 referendum.
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.
As part of the Footscray Community Arts Centre’s Womenjika Festival this weekend, Mariaa Randall (Githatbul and Gidabul) and the DubaiKungkaMiyalk (DKM) Dance Company’s moving performance HA LF places…
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North-East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Carly Sheppard’s latest work, White Face playing as part of Melbourne’s Next Wave festival this week, is a contemporary performance addressing personal experiences as a fair-skinned Aboriginal person based…
Australian Indigenous performance traditions, among the oldest in the world, are also among the most endangered. According to a Statement on Indigenous Australian Music and Dance endorsed in 2011 by the…
Since European contact Aboriginal people, such as myself, have been constructed as “straight”. This cultural default has contributed to the difficulty of proving so-called “real accounts” of sexual and…
Top contributors
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
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Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
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Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor in Oceanography and Public Engagement, Utrecht University
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Senior Research Fellow, UNSW Sydney
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Researcher and adjunct lecturer, University of Divinity
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Senior Curator of Australian and First Nations Art, National Gallery of Victoria, The University of Melbourne
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Galleries Coordinator, Griffith University
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Senior Lecturer In Music Literature and Research, Griffith University
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PhD Student, Flinders University
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Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
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Head of Cultural Collections, Conservation and Consulting, Australian Museum
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PhD Candidate, University of South Australia
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Associate professor, Charles Darwin University
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Emeritus professor, School of Regulation and Global Governance, ANU, Australian National University
