The Arts

The artists’ work is recognised worldwide as one of Australia’s most distinctive cultural contributions. Some works derive from many generations of culture, while others provide critical new perspectives on Australia’s colonial experience.

Music

Song cycles tell of Dreaming ancestors who sang as they travelled the land. They are passed down through the generations. The traditional owners of the land are the ones who own the songs and this proof of continuous association is an important requirement for land claims.

The popular band Yothu Yindi, from north-east Arnhem Land, uses traditional Yolngu melodies and words in its songs. Groups like the Warumpi Band, developed rock music and recorded in an Aboriginal language. Others have adapted the country-and-western style. Their songs reflect our different experiences, and generations have been sustained by them.

Some of us have taken on non-Indigenous artforms, like opera, and excelled.

Younger people have adapted hip hop, which derives from the urban slums of the USA, and invested it with their own style and lyrics.

Torres Strait Islanders have always been skilled absorbers and adaptors of the musical traditions of other people, from hymns and choruses in the 1870s, to Hawaiian-Pan-Pacific songs. Until the 1990s, most of the music heard in the islands was locally composed.

Theatre and dance

Dance is a vital part of Aboriginal culture, both as a part of ceremonies and as entertainment.

Some dances derive from the Dreaming while others reflect a more contemporary history. Each group has its own distinct style of expression, and dances can be passed through the generations.

We have also taken up contemporary theatrical styles. Bran Nue Day, Corrugation Road and Ngapartji Ngapartji are just three shows with strong cultural links that tour nationally. The world was introduced to our Indigenous performers at the 2000 Olympic Games opening in Sydney.

Torres Strait Islanders have adopted other influences and music and created new forms, and have flourishing cultural groups.

Art

We have always been artists. We paint in rock shelters and caves and on our bodies for ceremony. Carpenter’s Gap rock paintings in the Kimberley have been dated to 40 000 years ago and central Australia’s concentric circle art is thought to be the oldest continuing art tradition in the world. We also paint on tools, shields and musical instruments.

We make art for sale and the styles are as diverse as the artists’ cultures and histories. We paint huge canvasses, create intricate body-art, and apply ochre designs onto flat bark. Some of these hang in museums and galleries around the world. We also create other kinds of artforms: decorated ceramics, fibre sculptures, batik and print-making, linocuts, shell necklace-making and basketry, photography and film, and bronze sculpture. We have even revived older practices like possum-skin cloak decoration.

We sell our work through community organisations and galleries. The Deadly Awards, the Red Ochre Awards, and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award all celebrate our art and culture.

Our flags

We are proud of our identity as Indigenous people and our flags are a widely recognised symbol. Many regional councils, schools and individuals now proudly fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags alongside the Australian flag.

Arrente man, Harold Thomas, designed the Aboriginal flag. It was first flown on National Aboriginal Day in July 1971 in Adelaide, and recognised as a flag of Australia in July 1995. Bernard Namok, from Thursday Island, designed the Torres Strait Islander flag. It was first flown in 1992 and recognised as a flag of Australia in July 1995.

Film and television

TV and cinema have become home to some of our celebrated artists. We make feature films, documentaries and programs for our communities.

The national Tudawali Awards, celebrate the achievements of those of us working in the film, video and TV industry.

Writers

Like our film-makers and artists, our writers have embraced and now excel in a non-traditional artform. Two of our novelists have won the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for fiction, but we have award-winning poets, dramatists and biographers. They draw on the literary heritage provided by forebears like Jack Davis, Kevin Gilbert and Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

Some writers work in the areas of education and literacy and our own publishing houses include Magabala Books in Broome, the Institute of Aboriginal Development (IAD) in Alice Springs, Batchelor Press in Katherine and Aboriginal Studies Press (part of AIATSIS) in Canberra.

However, we began writing much earlier, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bennelong’s letter of 1796 was dictated to a scribe, but we soon began writing sermons, letters to colonial authorities and community newspapers. These letters and documents form part of our resistance to non-Indigenous control of our lives.

Media

Indigenous newspapers like the Koori Mail, the National Indigenous Times and the Torres News, play a pivotal role in communicating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture, politics and sport, as do radio programs like the ABC’s Message Stick, Speaking Out, Awaye! and SBS TV’s Living Black. Other Indigenous media include CAAMA, Imparja and NITV.

Excerpt fromThe Little Red Yellow Black Book by Bruce Pascoe with AIATSIS.