Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2014-07-11 13:55:17
I've often said that the major problem with the Intervention – and all the hyperventilation about the reported spate of child abuse and domestic violence in remote Aboriginal communities that justified the imposition of its quasi-military rule – was that...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2014-06-17 14:57:55
My interest in the history of Aboriginal activism in Australia is unbounded – so the prospect of the two documentaries selected by Blackfella Films for this year's Sydney Film Festival (SFF) was enticing. Both set in the early...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2014-03-03 12:46:59
The body that represents Aboriginal art centres in the far North - ANKAAA – is being as dynamic as ever. I've reported before on its collaborative efforts to train up Indigenous arts workers by arranging courses and work experience that...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2014-01-22 17:07:49
The persistent, heart-on-his-sleeve John Pilger is back again with, I think, his third film on Australia's total failure to achieve a solution to “the Aboriginal problem”. From the era of disease and massacre via assimilation times to The Intervention,...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2013-03-13 18:17:39
With wonderful synchronicity, just as I'd been writing about the damaging effects of the last cultural policy – Creative Nation - introduced by the Keating Government in October 1994, a new national cultural policy has belatedly emerged from the current...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2012-12-19 11:26:59
by Jennifer Isaacs, published by the wonderful Miegunyah Press at Melbourne University at $120 It's been an amazing year for Aboriginal art books – never known a better. If only I'd had time to read them all rather than just dip...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2012-09-21 18:32:09
America is having a far better year than Australia in terms of its experience and appreciation of our Indigenous art. First there was the Kaplan/Levi Collection on show in the Seattle Art Museum; now, across the country in New Hampshire,...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2012-07-10 15:31:45
YOU probably knew that indigenous art was ''more than rocks and dots'', as academic Larissa Behrendt explains in her new book, Indigenous Australia for Dummies. But were you aware that the largest indigenous populations in Australia are urban? That indigenous Australians...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2012-01-30 14:44:11
The 40th anniversary last week of the accidental Aboriginal Embassy on the lawns of Old Parliament House in Canberra was as good an opportunity as any to learn how it came about even before the messy events that accompanied it....» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2010-10-05 04:09:51
Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity and Eora College art exhibition opened at the Boomalli Aboriginal Arts Gallery on September 22 to a crowd of 50 people. The exhibition was based on the theme of the UN Declaration on the Rights of...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2010-09-17 17:57:46
It's quite strange when the one thing you know a man by doesn't get a mention in his obituary! That's happened repeatedly with the late John Kluge – known in Australia virtually only because of his magnificent Aboriginal art collection...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2010-09-16 19:35:03
The 50th anniversary of Albert Namatjira's death last year didn't get great play around Australia as his art is still coloured by confusion over its white origins and the patronising treatment that the artist received in his life. He was...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2010-08-01 06:23:52
It began with a bang just over a decade ago in the lush years of fast-paced economic growth, faltered in the global financial crisis, and was quietly, sadly laid in its grave over the past two weeks, its funeral marked...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2010-07-10 22:42:52
Djon Mundine thinks there should have been more of an Aboriginal presence in the Sydney Biennale. He mentions the theme of the event - "The beauty of distance: songs of survival in a precarious age" - and asks why more...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2010-05-24 23:21:23
An ABC report that one of the Centre’s most successful private art dealers has “launched a takoever bid” for the Papunya Tula Co-operative points to an interesting new chapter in the turbulent history of Central Australian Aboriginal art. ........ Is it really...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2010-03-13 16:46:31
I was drawn to this gorgeous and important book, 'We Are One' by the prospect of Damien Hirst – the English artist infamous for his crazy concepts like a floating shark or a diamond encrusted skull – sharing his...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2010-01-02 23:28:49
A fascinating article by Nicolas Rothwell on the shifting of the Aboriginal art industry out of Alice Springs, looking primarily at Papunya Tula and Desart: But the contours of the central Australian art world map are changing fast in the wake...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2009-08-11 17:42:28
Australian National University professor Jon Altman also spoke at the forum and lambasted the territory government's homelands policy to turn 20 towns into regional hubs. Funding to more than 500 outstations, or homelands, would be frozen, forcing residents into larger towns...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2009-07-18 05:28:36
Various paradoxes flow from the strange configuration of divergent interests in the Territory. Traditional community leaders and those close to the cultural heart of remote Aboriginal societies tend to have quite strong biases in favour of a degree of modernisation...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2009-06-22 13:27:49
Thomson Time was discovered Down South when the film, Ten Canoes revealed that in parts of Arnhemland, the period when anthropologist Donald Thomson photographed and recorded his encounters with Yolgnu people in the 1930s and 40s have come to be...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2009-05-01 20:11:33
The Cannes Film Festival will host the world-wide launch of the Aussie film, Samson & Delilah – featuring the great Warlpiri artist, Mitjili Napanangka Gibson, in her second film role. Not only the artist, but her art features seriously in...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2009-04-28 13:17:51
A brief survey of the great Arnhemland artist, John Mawurndjul's work has been mounted in Canberra. It sits at the Drill Hall Gallery in the ANU until 24th May. The occasion was also used to launch a book of the...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-12-15 04:00:27
From the National Indigenous Times: 2008 was a year of highs and lows for Aboriginal Australia. The high was, undoubtedly, the national apology in February. But the lows were... well, take your pick. The federal government's failure to endorse the UN...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2008-11-26 11:45:00
Of the key (white) facilitators of the Aboriginal art movement, only Geoffrey Bardon has ensured his own immortality via assiduous publication. And his reputation is based on just 12 months effort between the school wall painting at Papunya and his...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-11-10 23:55:27
Will Owen likes the latest post from The Northern Myth: [Bob Gosford's] latest post will be of interest to regular readers of this blog, as it is a long analysis of the proposed resale royalty that makes the scheme seem even...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-10-14 20:01:37
Barrister and Lecturer-in-Law at Charles Darwin University, Mr. Michael O’Donnell will open the University’s free public lecture series on Tuesday, October 14 by exploring legal implications of the NT intervention. Mr O’Donnell’s lecture will examine the Rudd Labor Government’s...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2008-10-01 19:56:11
In only its second year, the Northern Territory's Toga Contemporary Art Award is touring the Top End. It opens in Alice Spring tomorrow, moving to Tennant Creek in November and Katherine in December. Readers familiar with the Telstra Awards will assume...» Read More
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 2008-09-19 16:47:30
The Aboriginal Benefits Foundation's plans for a Healing Centre at Yirrkala in Arnhemland took a proud step forward last night when well over $300,000 was raised at an auction in the capable hands of Robert Bleakley, ex-boss of Sotheby's. The...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-09-15 13:09:18
The Australian reports: THE Rudd Government recently passed legislation in the lower house to reintroduce the permit system regulating access to indigenous communities. It is yet to be approved by the Senate. The Australian strongly supported the abolition of the permit...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-09-03 16:19:36
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Paddington is currently hosting new installation works by Indigenous-Australian artist Jonathan Jones. Untitled (The Tyranny of Distance), 2008 is positioned within the main exhibition space and is composed of a series of six blue tarpaulin covered...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-08-10 03:27:29
Nicholas Rothwell launches a scathing attack on the government's response to the Senate inquiry. Quoted from the article published in the Australian: What does the federal Government's new pledge to the indigenous art industry contain? A whole lot of nothing. And why...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-07-23 02:43:03
Harold Furber from the Titjikala Art Centre has spoken out about the Federal Government's intervention and its impact on Aboriginal art centres: Harold Furber says all remote art centres across the territory have been affected by the shire changes. Mr Furber says...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-07-03 08:32:42
Mori Gallery is right off the beaten track, beside Sydney's Western Distributor near the Entertainment Centre, and doesn't often associate with Aboriginal art. But the Warburton community is such a law unto itself, any show is of interest. Most art made...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-02-15 00:00:00
New works from Titjikala community, 120 kms south of Alice Springs. Known for its lively and niave style in painting and sculpture, the community is currently struggling to come to terms with recent changes to government policy and the role...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2008-02-01 01:17:46
Summer is hotting up and so is the pace at the art at the heart conference hub in Alice Springs. 2008 is already shaping up to be a busy year - and a hot one so far. We almost broke the...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2007-09-18 15:15:34
Brisbane Times Aboriginal art under threat Stephanie Peatling and Joel Gibson September 17, 2007 Article in the Brisbane Times about the changes to CDEP and the potential impact on the Aboriginal Art industry, with quotes from several Aboriginal Art centres. Quoted from article: The Federal Government's...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2007-09-07 06:40:04
Jeremy Eccles, Financial Times (UK) 7 September 2007 “Are you ready for London?” Apolline Kohen asks artist Samuel Namunjdja. “What time we going?” is his eager response about a visit that is still a month away. Time has an elastic quality out...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2007-08-07 08:14:28
Article in the Australian newspaper about the upcoming Garma festival that is being overshadowed by two controversies, the federal government intervention into Aboriginal communities and the Senate committee report into the sustainability of the Aboriginal art industry. Quoted from the article: This,...» Read More
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 2000-10-07 03:54:43
The company says the poverty-stricken people who own the land are in desperate need of development, jobs and revenue. But Prime Minister Howard, who has a keen sense of history, is leading an angry revolt against the development. He sent...» Read More