Artist Profile

INDIGENOUS ART: WHERE ARE WE GOING?

What Indigenous art needs most is a ma jor exhibition in a world art capital, says John McDonald. The self confidence and spirit of innovation among Aboriginal artists is cultivating outstanding work, and gaining international recognition is simple justice.

‘ABORIGINAL ARTISTS SAY THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO find any Aboriginal art that is devoid of spiritual meaning. Art is their culture, their work, their worship, their history. A painting is a chronicle of their country, a map of myths, a memoir of the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime. And their paintings are inextricably woven with their love of the land; they are “dancing, singing and painting for the land”.’

Who is it, you’re wondering, saying such respectful and sympathetic things about Aboriginal art? Is

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