Indigenising the Australian Artworld

Abstract

In the 1990s, Indigenous art, once the antithesis of Australian national culture, became its brand. Given the history of colonialism in Australia, it was a big story that has generated a substantial interdisciplinary scholarship on the politics of art in the contemporary world. This chapter tracks the journey of Indigenous art within the discourse of Australian national culture during the 20th century from pariah to saviour. Beginning with an analysis of the ideological and historical relationships between Indigenous art and artworld constructions of national cultures in the modern world, the main part of the chapter addresses the changing roles of Indigenous art in Australian national discourse from its foundation at the beginning of the 20th century in the dream of a white Australia within the fold of the British Empire, with a particular focus on the post-World War II period when postcolonial, multicultural and postnational agendas opened new opportunities and challenges for Indigenous art within a revised national culture.