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The big impact on aboriginal culture
The big impact on aboriginal culture
The big impact on aboriginal culture
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Aboriginal art is widely associated with the primitive and primordial nature of the Australian Indigenous culture. However, as it has become more popular globally, one must consider the authenticity of the Aboriginal art sold on the contemporary market. Eric Michaels essay, ‘Bad Aboriginal Art’ (Michaels, 1988) exposes his concerns with how we define certain art as being genuinely ‘Aboriginal’ and questions what external influences exploit and influence the validity and authenticity of Aboriginal art. The essay summons readers to question what they identify with Australian culture and whether or not White Australians have disordered the meaning of Indigenous art.
In his case study “The case of Bad rock art” (Michaels, 1988) Michaels refers
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201) of the Wandjinas rock painting in Western Australia. He explains the bureaucracy that was demonstrated by the local government who were called by Mr. Lorin Bishop, the owner of the cattle station where the Wandjina rock art was situated, who was concerned that the art was ‘deteriorating’. The Federal Minister for Aboriginal affairs hired a group of unemployed workers from Derby to “restore” (Michaels, 1988, p.201) the work.
The young workers first used video and still cameras to record the site and used “housepaint, aquadhere, wood glue and plastic”(Michaels, 1988, p. 201) to paint over it, followed by acrylic paint rather than traditional soluble ochre when mimicking the original designs. Their renewal of the 5000-year-old design was referred to as looking “tea towel kitsch”, (Michaels, 1988, p. 201) contrary to the authentic primordial aesthetic that
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Indigenous art is well respected and popular in the global art market and is commonly preconceived as art that is purely primitive, reflective of the primordial nature society associates with the Indigenous culture. However, it is important to be conscious of the impact White Australians have on the identity of Indigenous Australians and their art. In Michaels’ case study “A telling Secret” (Michaels, 1988, p.203) he explores Indigenous identity and the common preconception that society has that Aboriginal art is authentic and primitive, by exposing the external White Australian influences in the industry. He thus challenges his readers to question their prejudgments on what they would classify as legitimate and pure Aboriginal art. Michaels sets out to question whether we determine it on the process of production and circulation or purely by the product (Michaels 1988, p.
Through the three pieces, the landscapes reflect a painting style is more often associated with European Romantic art, however, unlike the others, the central piece showcases the sky painted with miniscule dots, a technique common within Indigenous art (Lingard 2014, 44). However, the fact that the sky is the only piece of the composition painted with this technique and is placed in the background while more European inspired art and images are placed in the foreground is potentially symbolic of the marginalisation of Indigenous people and their culture in contemporary Australian society. Within Bennett’s own life, he was brought up without his Aboriginal heritage ever being spoken of, describing it himself as “overwhelming Euro-Australian” (McLean 1996, 20). Thus, within his artworks, a dotted circle at the top of each composition includes black footprints facing away from the circle, which matches his personal experience of Indigenous culture being ‘left behind’ in contemporary Australian society. The artist lived in a time where he was connected to a variety of Indigenous experiences including his own as well as the servitude of his mother, and thus through the combination of these varying art techniques, Bennett evokes both discord and further represents the marginalisation of Indigenous culture
Hooper urges the reader to accept that in the context of colonial Australia, Aboriginals faced such extreme oppression that they resorted to summoning spirits to doom their cruel white colonisers. She recounts a walk to a cave in Cape York, where she intentionally selects paintings depicting destructive images of white colonisers being “doomed”, highlighting the rifles which the white troopers brandished. The marginalised Aboriginals resigned to using “purri purri” (sorcery) against the police, which emphasises the idea that in this context, the Aboriginals felt so oppressed that they resorted to conjuring spirits for protection. Hooper describes a painting in which under a white man’s shirt, “he was reptilian”, and the adjective “reptilian” allows the audience to understand that in this context, the Aboriginals felt so threatened that they had to draw the trooper as a snake. In Aboriginal culture, the snake symbolises protection of the land of Aboriginal people, whom believed that a man would be harmed if the symbol was drawn upon him. My understanding of the oppression in which Aboriginal Australians faced in colonial Australia invoked feelings of anger and disgust, and reinforced pre-existing attitudes I have on discrimination and the corrupt police
Jedda, Australia’s first colour film, created in 1955 by Charles Chauvel deals with an Aboriginal child adopted by a white grazing family. As she grows up, Jedda is tempted more and more to return to her people. Seduced by the wild Marbuck, she partakes in the film's tragedy, played out against a spectacular landscape. This essay seeks to discuss the representations of the Australian landscape as portrayed in the film Jedda, highlighting the use of filmic techniques in these representations.
Contemporary art is the art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes, which can include and represent the Australian culture, politics and music as well as in art forms such as portrait and landscape. Contemporary art is defined as art that is current, offering a fresh perspective and point of view and often employing new techniques and new media. Current art means work by both emerging and also established artists. Rosalie Gascoigne and Imants Tillers are honoured for their contribution showing the Australian landscape in fresh, new and transformational way. Whilst both are similar in their use of text and original interpretation of our landscape they are vastly different in their approach and creating meaning for their
Kent Monkman is an artist of ‘Aboriginal and Irish descent’ (Filgiano) who was commissioned to create a large scale Acrylic on canvas, measuring 72” x 108”.“The Academy” is a parody piece which makes reference to art created in the European tradition, alongside Aboriginal art and artifacts. It hangs in the Museum Gallery alongside some of the very pieces that are featured within it. It’s as though Monkman is playfully gossiping about his neighbors in the Gallery, both figuratively and literally. While his work is significant enough to hang in the Gallery alongside these other masterworks, Monkman makes a tongue-in-cheek observation that Academy work has historically been regarded as the only legitimate Fine Art. Traditionally, Aboriginal Art and Artifacts have been confined to separate exhibits or ancillary displays, but never alongside classical European pieces. The piece makes reference to a vast...
Indigenous Australian artist Gordon Bennett re-contextualises the work of Colin McCahon by borrowing and transforming key visual features. Bennett’s work challenges the viewer and gives them an alternative perspective of the culture and identity of Indigenous Australians. The quote by The National Gallery of Victoria states, “Often describing his own practice of borrowing images as ‘quoting’, Bennett re-contextualises existing images to challenge the viewer to question and see alternative perspectives.” This quote is clear through analyzing the visual features as well as the meaning behind the work of Gordon Bennett’s appropriated artwork ‘Self-portrait (but I always wanted to be one of the good guys)’ (1990) and comparing it to Colin McCahon’s
Rosie Gascoigne, is an artist who has aspired an appreciation for undiserable remnants and utilised with them in purpose to produce an assemblage of work that sees into a reflection of the past and present landscape of Australian society. Her growing motivation has taken further interest and development as the founding layers of her work through her deliberate perception, subject to the preservation of the environment and surrounding landscape. Gascoigne’s work offers an insight into deep country outback life of an Australian individual and introduces conceptualities that mirror a focus situated about ‘re-using’, ‘ recycling’ and understanding the insightful meaning present within everyday remnants. Her work is a collective gathering of selected materials to form a composition or an
Within the Hornsby Shire there are more than 900 landmarks and indicators of the occurrence of an Aboriginal settlement as a result from the local tribe, the Guringai people. A major place of significance is through the up keeping and findings within the ‘Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.’ “Sir Henry Copeland (Australian Politician) named this location after the Aboriginal tribe whilst chase is an English word meaning an enclose land where animals were kept for hunting” (Hornsby Shire Council, n.d.) Throughout the landmark Aboriginal paintings, carvings, engravings, middens...
The 21st Century appears to be headed towards a future of vast corruption and exploitation as a result of the often inhumane and uncivilised individuals who, over the years have become desensitized to poverty, war, consumerism, racism, mental illnesses and political corruption. As the world moves towards further democracy, and decentralization it is vital that art is given the opportunity to stimulate people’s awareness, participation and judgment. Arts purpose is not only to be a fulfilment of society’s visual needs but is needed be utilised as a function to alert people to society’s problems. Australian born George Gittoes, works within war zones to create confronting paintings, film, photography and prose that frequently portray man’s inhumanity to man. Gordon Bennett, also Australian, paints images that depict his own self questioning about his identity and the injustice towards Aboriginal Australians since the time of settlement.
Before 1919, Aboriginal/indigenous art and artifacts were virtually non-existent in the world of art, with almost no representation whatsoever and was “thought to be dying under the waves of white cultural encroachment on their lands, languages and cultural practices.” (The Canadian Encyclopedia, paragraph #4). After returning from a trip to England in 1899, feeling “cheated by 'bad health and circumstances'”, Emily felt isolated in Victoria, being in her mid-thirties and single, grouped with her sisters critical opinions of her and old friends having moved away or joined private groups such as 'The Married Ladies' Club' that she could not join. In 1905, she visited a small Aboriginal village by the name of Ucluelet, where she had often been to in her teen years and had been known as Klee Wyck, meaning “laughing one” in Kwakiutl (Tippett, Maria, Emily Carr: a Biography, p. 63-65).
Before a select historiographical study on historians’ approaches to Aboriginals’ historical role can be addressed, the views and evidence presented by Raibmon require contextual examination. Raibmon maintains that to satisfy European colonizers’ perceptions of the Aboriginal, pressure from 19th century colonial missionaries, government, tourists, and anthropologists resulted in the creation of exhibits of Aboriginal...
Australian indigenous culture is the world’s oldest surviving culture, dating back sixty-thousand years. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have been represented in a myriad of ways through various channels such as poetry, articles, and images, in both fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, they have been portrayed as inferior, oppressed, isolated, principled and admirable. Three such texts that portray them in these ways are poems Circles and Squares and Grade One Primary by Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Packer slams booing; joins three cheers for footballer and the accompanying visual text and Heywire article Family is the most important thing to an islander by Richard Barba. Even though the texts are different as ….. is/are …., while
In this manner, western cultures command great power by being able to represent their own heritage as a higher ranking than the “primitive” art of Third World nations that is often exhibited: “It also means the power to define and rank people, to declare some as having a greater share than others in the community’s common heritage—in its very identity” (Duncan 102). These are the important findings of Duncan’s (1991) analysis of cultural imperialism, which I agree with in terms of the greater influence of American and European museums to ritualize their status as a first world modern nation. More so, American/European museums get greater funding to superimpose their culture over museums in third world countries, which defines the overt power of the museum as a “temple” for first world art. These are important aspects of Duncan’s view that the disproportionate presence of western art throughout the world is based on a primarily imperialistic notion of cultural superiority in the presentation of American and European heritage on a global scale. In my opinion, I feel that western museums deliberately impose their cultural values in terms of “modernity” as a means of ranking themselves above lesser nations. Certainly, the increasing popularity of “primitive”
Nickolls uses many signs, symbols and techniques, unique to Aboriginal culture, within his work, often appropriating these elements and juxtaposing them against european influences. In unison the aboriginal and european elements give his artwork its idiosyncrasy and clearly display the physiological and spiritual conflict within himself regarding his sense of identity and physical belonging. Nickolls style of painting and the colour palette both reflect and subvert traditional Aboriginal dot paintings. In his work ‘Wrestling with the white spirit’ the traditionally earthy Aboriginal colour palette is subverted by the predominant use of blue amongst less potent
But familiar landmarks and also the unfamiliar ones aren't the whole make-up of Australia's heritage. It's the people that make a difference. Australia is made up of people from all walks of life who have migrated here for different reasons. Among these, the most common migrants are from Greece, Italy, Russia and Asia. Australia is made up of material culture: the places and objects, but also Living culture: In forms such as Music, Crafts, Literature etc. It is an interplay between international cultures and beliefs, the claims of nationalism and ethnic and religious traditions, as well as the local and community priorities that’s make up the unique Australian heritage.