How Law Manifests Itself in Australian Aboriginal Art

Historical ironies: the Australian Aboriginal art revolution*

Margaret Preston, an Australian painter, has been credited as the first nonanthropologist to begin to explore Australian Aboriginal art as an art. Preston saw in Aboriginal painting the well-spring for an ‘indigenous art of Australia’. The seeking of a national identity, and specifically a connection with place, is common to many if not most societies, reflecting a Herderian idea of art, langua...

Collecting Aboriginal Art in the Australian Nation: Two Case Studies

Visual Anthropology Review, Volume 21, Issues 1 and 2, pages 116-137, ISSN 1053-7147, online ISSN 1548-7458. ©2006 by the American Anthropological Association, all rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press; Journals Division; 2000 Center Street, Suite 303; Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. By now, it is well known that Aboriginal ...

The Dean’s Disease: How the Darker Side of Power Manifests Itself in the Office of Dean

Commentators since the time of Greek dramatist Sophocles have noted that the exercise of power often produces strong psychological changes in people. As power holders, deans comprise far too few exceptions to this insight. Early in their tenure new deans are generally grateful for the confidence placed in them by their former colleagues and are eager to work together in changing “the system” to...

Is It Art or Knowledge? Deconstructing Australian Aboriginal Creative Making

Australian Aboriginal symbols are visual forms of knowledge that express cultural intellect. Being classified by a Western interpretation of “art” devalues thousands of years of generational knowledge systems, where visual information has been respected, appreciated and valued. This article highlights how Aboriginal creativity has little concept of aesthetical value, but is a cultural display o...

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