47 H. O’Connell, ‘The French Connection’, Glen Eira Leader, 21 March 2007.
48 J. Eccles, ‘Vitriol in the Name of Art’, The Canberra Times, 20 June 2006.
49 Record of interview between Glenis Wilkins and the author, 30 May 2012.
50 For all but brief periods during the past 20 years.
51 They included Abie Loy Kemarre and Kathleen Petyarre, who were nominally exclusively contracted to Gallerie Australis in Adelaide; 18 Papunya Tula shareholders; two dozen independent Utopia artists; as well as independent unaffiliated artists. Also included were Gallery Gondwana’s star artist Dorothy Napangardi; Judy Watson Napangadi and Liddy Walker Napanagardi from the Yuendumu art centre; and Lily Kelly Napangardi and Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri from Watiyawanu Artists-Mt Liebig.
52 B. Lewis, Contemporary Art Bubble, presented, written and directed by Ben Lewis, BBC, 2009.
53 J. Hawley, ‘The China Issue, Red Hot’, The Good Weekend, 12 July 2008.
54 D. Thompson, The $12 million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art and Auction Houses, p. 89.
55 R. Butler and R. Bell, ‘Psychoanalysis’, Art Collector, issue 38, October–December 2006.
56 G. Greer, ‘Selling Off the Dreaming’, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 December 1997.
57 D. Thompson, The $12 million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art and Auction Houses, p. 71.
58 After Richard Bell.
59 R. Skelton, ‘Suicide Among Children as Young as 11 at Alarming Levels’, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 2012.
60 N. Pearson, Up from the Mission: Selected Writings, p. 296.
61 N. Rothwell, ‘Destroyed in Alice’, The Australian, 19 February 2011.
62
63 Rothwell’s Walkley Award-winning article, ‘Scams in the Desert’, 2006.
64 The report on the Parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s Indigenous visual arts and craft sector, Indigenous Arts – Securing the Future, was released in June 2007.
65 NAVA employed Jill Gientzotis of Gientzotis Consulting to develop the voluntary code with funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. A reference group was established to include advocates for remote area artists, urban artists, institutions, as well as the ACGA and Art.Trade. It was chaired by the CEO of Indigenous Tourism Australia, Aden Ridgeway.
66 Principally the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and the copyright agency Viscopy.
67 7 March 2012.
68 In November 2003 the Sydney Morning Herald’s Art Spectrum ran a cover story by staffer Debra Jopson, which promoted resale royalties as a way of addressing Indigenous disadvantage under the heading ‘Black Art – White Profit’. The Art Spectrum cover featured an image of the wife of Johnny Warangkula standing beside a temporary shelter made of old cyclone wire and corrugated iron, contained as if it were a conceptual photograph by Tracey Moffatt within a very ornate gilt picture frame. The caption read, ‘Her husband’s work sells for $350,000. So why is Gladys stuck in a humpy?’
69 Jane Yalanga.
70 ‘Artists Criticise Royalties Deal’, 3 July 2001,
71 For further infomation
72 Cecilia Alfonso, Manager, Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu, Northern Territory (personsal communication).
73 Literally meaning ‘land belonging to no-one’. On 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled that Indigenous peoples’ land title, or native title, stems from the continuation within common law of their rights over land which pre-date European colonisation. At long last, this ending of the legal fiction of terra nullius brought Australia in line with other common law countries, such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
TIMELINE
Date
Art and Culture
Politics and History
60,000– 40,000 BP
First evidence of human occupation of Australia with human remains at Lake Mungo, NSW (45,000 BP), and stone tools in Arnhem Land, NT (60,000 years old).
35,000 BP
Tasmania and New Guinea connected to mainland Australia.
18,000 BP
Rock paintings of thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) and Zaglossus (long-beaked echidna) in Kakadu region, NT.
12,000 BP
Rising sea levels separate New Guinea and Tasmania.
6000 BP
Rock art begins in Western Arnhem Land.
1500s
Macassan fishermen regularly visit Australia’s north to fish and trade.
1770
Lt James Cook claims NSW for the English crown.
1778
Arrival of First Fleet in Australia.
1790
Pemulwuy leads guerilla campaign against invaders.
1801–1804
Matthew Flinders records rock engravings near Groote Eylandt, NT.
Settlers authorised to shoot Aborigines in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in response to resistance.
1834–1838
John Batman swaps blankets and goods for 250,000 ha of southeast Australian land in attempt to make treaty.
1837
George Grey records Wandjina paintings in the Kimberley.
1860s
Tommy McRae begins selling drawings to tourists.
Pearling industry begins as 150 Aborigines are killed resisting arrest in Kimberley.
1880s
Missionaries forbid the creation and use of elaborate dance costumes, traditional artefacts, ceremonial icons and effigies in the Torres Strait Islands.
Advent of Christianity and the ‘Coming of the Light’ in the Torres Strait Islands.
1880–1882
Bark paintings from Arnhem Land exhibited at Sydney International Exhibition.
Crystal Palace in Sydney destroyed by fire, along with Aboriginal collection.
1890s
William Barak creates paintings for sale.
Jandamarra declares war on white invaders in Kimberley and prevents settlement for six years.
1912
Baldwin Spencer collects bark paintings from Western Arnhem Land.
1920s
Bedford Downs Massacre in the Kimberley. Coniston Massacre in the NT.
1930–1936
Albert Namatjira begins painting.
Charles Mountford first visits Hermannsburg.
Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve is declared.
1935
Wilbur Chaseling establishes missionary settlement at Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land.
1938
Albert Namatjira’s first solo exhibition.
NSW government changes Aboriginal policy from Protection to Assimilation.
1942
200 virtually enslaved Aboriginal representatives meet ‘whitefella’ activist Donald McLeod; a strike is planned but postponed until after WWII. Darwin bombed by Japanese.
1946–1949
The American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land.
First exhibition of Arnhem Land art at David Jones Gallery in Sydney.
Pilbara stike: hundreds of Aborginal pastoral workers leave their work for better pay and conditions.
1950
Professor Peter Elkin and Ronald and Catherine Berndt publish their book Art in Arnhem Land, which provides the first detailed explanation of this art in its social context.
1961
Jim and Rene Davidson open their Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery.
1964–1966
Czech anthropologist Karel Kupka collects bark paintings for the Musée National des Arts Afrique et d’Océanie in Paris.
Craft warehouse established at Snake Bay on Melville Island.
Charles Perkins leads Freedom Ride to raise awareness of the discrimination toward the Indigenous people in Australia.
200 Aboriginal stockmen stage a walk-off in protest against poor working conditions at Vestey’s cattle station at Wave Hill, NT.
1967
/> Art marketing begins in Western Arnhem Land through mission at Oenpelli.
National referendum results in Aboriginal people being included in the census and the Commonwealth government being able to make laws for Aboriginal people.
1967
Australian Council of the Arts begins to fund art advisers in remote communities.
Prime Minister Harold Holt (Liberal–Country Party coalition government) establishes Australian Council of the Arts; ‘Nugget’ Coombs becomes its Chair, and Chair of the Australian Council for Aboriginal Affairs.
1971
Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa wins the Alice Springs Caltex Golden Jubilee Art Award.
Federal Office of Aboriginal Affairs establishes Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Pty Ltd (‘The Company’) as a marketing and distribution company.
Noonkanbah cattle station workers walk off job. Gumatj elders take on Nabalco P/L and the Commonwealth in Gove land case after presenting bark petition.
1972
Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd is incorporated. Geoffrey Bardon leaves Papunya after stimulating the birth of the Western Desert art movement.
Gough Whitlam leads Labor Party to power in Australia after 23 years of conservative government.
1974
The Aboriginal Arts Board and The Company organise an exhibition, Art of the First Australians, at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
Ernabella Arts and Crafts incorporated.
Cyclone Tracy strikes Darwin; a number of elders from the East Kimberley interpret the event as a warning from the Rainbow Serpent against the white man’s ways.
1974–1976
The Aboriginal Arts Board tours Art of Aboriginal Australia, the first major Aboriginal art exhibition abroad.
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 is passed, providing recognition of land ownership by 1,100 Aboriginal people.
1975
The Aboriginal Arts Board stages the landmark exhibition Art of the Western Desert at the Australian National University.
Whitlam Government passes the Australia Council Act 1975. This gives the Australia Council more power to provide meaningful employment and cultural maintenance to Aboriginal communities. Liberal–Country Party coalition comes to power with Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister after the sacking of the Whitlam Labor government.
1977–1978
BBC screens The Desert Dreamers as part of its series The World About Us
Geoffrey Bardon makes documentary film about Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri; Bardon’s book Art of the Western Desert is published.
First ceremonial enactment of Rover Thomas’ Gurrir Gurrir in Kimberley
Kimberley Land Council established.
1978
George Ortiz, legendary art collector, puts some of his tribal art collection up for auction through Sotheby’s in London, and smashes the record for any tribal art sale by generating $3 million.
1979
George Milpurrurru and David Malangi included in Sydney Biennale.
1981
The Commonwealth Pascoe Report (Improving Focus and Efficiency in the Marketing of Aboriginal Artefacts) is published.
National Gallery of Victoria stages the Aboriginal Australia exhibition, featuring 19th-century paintings by Tommy McRae and William Barak, ceremonial weapons, ornaments and masks and, for the first time, ‘modern’ Western Desert paintings.
Pintupi township of Kintore established.
1982
Lajamanu elders create large sand painting for the Sydney Biennale.
Coo-ee Emporium stages the first exhibition for Aborginal ar t and craft company Tiwi Designs. Tiwi Design’s turnover increases tenfold in the space of a year.
Protest by Aborigines during Brisbane Commonwealth Games.
Royal Commission into Maralinga atomic tests.
1983
Sotheby’s opens its Sydney office.
Labor Party comes to power with Robert (Bob) Hawke as Prime Minister.
1985
Sotheby’s stages a tribal art sale at the Blaxland Gallery in Sydney at which Gary Foley, first Indigenous Director of the Aboriginal Arts Board, slaps an injunction on 75 lots ‘on behalf of the ‘Aboriginal Lands Council’, effectively withdrawing almost a third of the objects from the sale.
The Commonwealth Miller Report (Review of Aboriginal Employment and Training Programs) is published.
Uluru handed back to traditional owners.
1986
Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association, the art centre of Yuendumu, is established.
1987
Anne-Marie Brodie, Australian businessman Robert Holmes à Court’s art curator, edits the definitive book on the nascent Utopia story.
The Commonwealth report Return to Country: The Aboriginal Homelands Movement in Australia is published.
1988
Robert Holmes à Court purchases 88 Utopia batiks.
Anatjari Tjakamarra becomes the first Western Desert painter to be represented in a major international contemporary art institution when one of his works is exhibited at the John Weber Gallery in New York and is later acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative opens in Sydney
Bicentennial of European occupation of Australia. Human Rights Commission reports that conditions in Toomelah and Boggabilla settlements, NSW, are worse than in the Third World.
1988–1989
The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) catalogues 81 Utopia paintings to be sold at S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney: Robert Holmes à Court purchases the entire collection, and the artists’ success snowballs.
Indigenous copyright protection established after Johnny Bulun Bulun and 13 other plaintiffs take action over unauthorised reproduction of their designs on T-shirts.
1989
Injalak Arts art centre established at Oenpelli, Western Arnhem Land.
First commercial exhibition of Balgo Hills artists’ work is held at Coo-ee Gallery in Sydney.
Emily Kngwarreye’s first exhibition held; Robert Holmes à Court purchases the entire collection.
The Commonwealth Altman Report is published, detailing proposals and recommendations for a comprehensive Aboriginal art industry strategy. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Committee (NATSIAC) is established by the Australia Council.
1989–1990
Rover Thomas and Trevor Nickolls represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is established.
1991
Paul Keating replaces Bob Hawke as Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party. Australia enters the ‘recession it had to have’.
1992–1993
High Court hands down Mabo decision, rejecting the doctrine of terra nullius.
Keating Government passes Native Title Act 1993.
1994
Australian art market begins to pull out of the recession and more galleries begin to take on Aboriginal art.
1995
Emily Kngwarreye becomes the highest paid woman artist in Australia.
Susan McCulloch’s article ‘Authentic Forgery: The Faking of Aboriginal Art’ published in The Australian.
1996
Liberal–National Party coalition is returned to power, with John Howard as Prime Minister. High Court hands down Wik decision.
1998
Establishment of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association (Art.Trade) at historic Alice Springs conference.
Howard Government passes Native Title Amendment Act 1998.
1999
ATSIC and Desart publish The Art and Craft Centre Story: A Survey of 39 Aboriginal Community Art and Craft Centres in Remote Australia.
Hank Ebes installs a 15 x 5 metre ‘Emily wall’ at the 800-year-old Oude Kirk in Amsterdam, 53 individual paintings by Emily Kngwarreye,. Susan McCulloch’s article ‘Painter Tells of Secret Women’s Business’ is published in The
Australian. Clifford Possum and Turkey Tolson scandals erupt in national press.
2000
Papunya Tula: Genisis and Genius exhibition opens at Art Gallery of NSW.
Sydney Olympics.
250,000 people walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Aboriginal Reconciliation.
2001
Rodney Menzies purchases auction house Lawsons and renames it Lawson~Menzies.
UNESCO conference in Paris considers the impact of new technologies on Indigenous people.
2004
The exhibition Colour Power – Aboriginal Art Post 1984 opens at National Gallery of Victoria.
ATSIC is dismantled in the aftermath of corruption allegations and litigation.
2006
Nicolas Rothwell’s article ‘Scams in the Desert’ is published in The Australian Weekend Inquirer.
2007
12 months before the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Aboriginal art is in the most bouyant state in its history.
The federal government stages a massive ‘Intervention’ under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007.
Labor Party is returned to power, with Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister.
Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
The Dealer is the Devil Page 59