Australian Politics Forum - Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler

Brian Ross Gold Member Offline Representative of me Posts: 44979	Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:22pm Federal support for national Aboriginal art gallery in Alice Springs in doubt
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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 51580 At my desk.	Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler Reply #1 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:52pm Will any artists be excluded from contributing on the basis of race?
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Dnarever

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #2 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 7:56pm

The Libs moved the location and halved the size but still want the same federal money. The feds say it is now too small to fulfil the requirement to be a significant gallery.

Hopefully they can get past the politics. Seems the original Labor plan had a problem with the location and the move only made it worse. Looks like a case of two wrongs just making a mess.

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Dnarever

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #3 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 8:18pm

freediver wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:52pm:

Will any artists be excluded from contributing on the basis of race?

Difficult question, there is a cultural aspect to Aboriginal art to do with their religion culture and their dreamtime story telling. Non Aboriginals doing Aboriginal art is not a thing - it is not aboriginal art. Also incorporating Aboriginal design may be Cultural appropriation. An example would be to include dreamtime imagery.

So it would be difficult for an unapproved non Aboriginal to produce legitimate Aboriginal art. It is possible I believe for a non Aboriginal to have a learning process covering the knowledge required to be allowed to paint these images I suspect that would be rare.

People would not be excluded on the basis of race as much as being excluded for not producing Aboriginal art.

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Frank

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #4 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 10:15pm

Dnarever wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 8:18pm:

freediver wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:52pm:

Will any artists be excluded from contributing on the basis of race?

Difficult question, there is a cultural aspect to Aboriginal art to do with their religion culture and their dreamtime story telling. Non Aboriginals doing Aboriginal art is not a thing - it is not aboriginal art. Also incorporating Aboriginal design may be Cultural appropriation. An example would be to include dreamtime imagery.

So it would be difficult for an unapproved non Aboriginal to produce legitimate Aboriginal art. It is possible I believe for a non Aboriginal to have a learning process covering the knowledge required to be allowed to paint these images I suspect that would be rare.

People would not be excluded on the basis of race as much as being excluded for not producing Aboriginal art.

It's not Aboriginal art. There is no such thing.
Art is not something primitive prehistoric people have. It is a European cultural and conceptual framing, like work, leisure, agriculture, literature, philosophy, education etc

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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 88947 Proud Old White Australian Man Gender:	Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler Reply #5 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 10:34pm Argh, aye, m'lod ... so it be foine if an APPROVED Aboriginal does the tricky art bit? Right you are, guv!! Pascoe!! You're on!!
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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #6 - Oct 8^th, 2025 at 10:38pm

Brian Ross wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:22pm:

Federal support for national Aboriginal art gallery in Alice Springs in doubt Cool

Well .......................... they'd probably burn it to the ground or ram raid it or something... Wharte Man's Oppression, that is... cain' buy us off with a few lazy dollars... wait a minute - sure - BUY us off... then we'll party and burn 'im down!!

"So it's a matter of how many dollars?"

"What do you think I am? Corrupt? You Wharte bastards are all the same!"

"Well - we can always add a bit.... and cover the fire insurance..... government money ... plenty more where that came from!"

"DEAL!"

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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Gnads

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #7 - Oct 9^th, 2025 at 7:59am

Dnarever wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 8:18pm:

freediver wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:52pm:

Will any artists be excluded from contributing on the basis of race?

Difficult question, there is a cultural aspect to Aboriginal art to do with their religion culture and their dreamtime story telling. Non Aboriginals doing Aboriginal art is not a thing - it is not aboriginal art. Also incorporating Aboriginal design may be Cultural appropriation. An example would be to include dreamtime imagery.

So it would be difficult for an unapproved non Aboriginal to produce legitimate Aboriginal art. It is possible I believe for a non Aboriginal to have a learning process covering the knowledge required to be allowed to paint these images I suspect that would be rare.

People would not be excluded on the basis of race as much as being excluded for not producing Aboriginal art.

Yes well I'd say there are quite a few in that category - because they identify as Aboriginal.

And btw their is much in the so called dreamtime/sacred business story telling that women are not allowed to do & men won't put on canvas.

I wouldn't believe there are any urban raised "aboriginals" ... that would abide by that.

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Brian Ross Gold Member Offline Representative of me Posts: 44979	Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler Reply #8 - Oct 14^th, 2025 at 12:39pm Plans for national art gallery in Alice Springs scrapped after government rift
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Dnarever

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #9 - Oct 14^th, 2025 at 9:01pm

Frank wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 10:15pm:

Dnarever wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 8:18pm:

freediver wrote on Oct 8^th, 2025 at 2:52pm:

Will any artists be excluded from contributing on the basis of race?

Difficult question, there is a cultural aspect to Aboriginal art to do with their religion culture and their dreamtime story telling. Non Aboriginals doing Aboriginal art is not a thing - it is not aboriginal art. Also incorporating Aboriginal design may be Cultural appropriation. An example would be to include dreamtime imagery.

So it would be difficult for an unapproved non Aboriginal to produce legitimate Aboriginal art. It is possible I believe for a non Aboriginal to have a learning process covering the knowledge required to be allowed to paint these images I suspect that would be rare.

People would not be excluded on the basis of race as much as being excluded for not producing Aboriginal art.

It's not Aboriginal art. There is no such thing.
Art is not something primitive prehistoric people have. It is a European cultural and conceptual framing, like work, leisure, agriculture, literature, philosophy, education etc

Quote:

It's not Aboriginal art. There is no such thing.

Yet the same themed images are found on rock walls and in caves going back 65,000,000 years or so ?

Yes the media used is new but not the drawings or cultural significance and stories.

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Frank

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Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler
Reply #10 - Oct 31^st, 2025 at 9:40am

As even a cursory reading of Creative Australia’s annual report, or those of its predecessor, shows, the easy task of “supporting ethnicity and gender differences in the arts” replaced the hard one of seeking real excellence. Fortunate indeed the applicant who, while vociferously denouncing settler colonialism, Zionism and climate denialism, could also claim to be black, transgender and “differently abled”.

Worse still, the erosion of merit encouraged a form of institutionalised corruption, with panels dominated by the artistic-curatorial complex allocating taxpayers’ money on what too often appears to be a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” basis. The lack of transparency, the dismantling of safeguards such as limits on successive grants, and sheer managerial incompetence did the rest, entrenching defects worthy of scrutiny by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Little wonder then that so many grants and awards – which conveniently boost the market value of recipients’ work – have gone to “creatives” who lack nearly every quality that once defined a serious artist: originality, complexity, universality, ambiguity, depth and insight into human nature. And little wonder, too, that publicly supported “art” so rarely rises above affirmative, prolix kitsch.

It is, after all, just a postmodern version of socialist realism, in which art – as cultural commissar Andrei Zhdanov declared in 1932 when imposing the new Stalinist orthodoxy – was merely “a weapon” for “the ideological remoulding of the people in the spirit of socialism”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/there-is-a-concerning-shift-happenin...

Cultural Marxism, in other words.

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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 88947 Proud Old White Australian Man Gender:	Re: Federal support for national Aboriginal art galler Reply #11 - Oct 31^st, 2025 at 12:51pm They have art galleries all over the place - they're called cave walls and rock faces. I thought those were traditional sites worth keeping...
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