Reimagining the Indigenous art market: site of decolonisation and assertion of Indigenous cultures

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research examines the role of art intermediaries as power brokers working with different market stakeholders in the Indigenous art market in Australia. To conceptualise the legacies of settler colonialism and colonial market structures, we employ a decolonisation approach to understand how art intermediaries navigate the inherent tensions and power struggles within society. Using in-depth interviews, archival data, and fieldnotes, we identify three different roles of art intermediaries as cultural conduits, art connoisseurs, and change agents who use their power to engage in cultural expansion, aesthetic expansion, and political resurgence, respectively. This research highlights how some art intermediaries work to decolonise the market, while others reproduce dominant settler market structures.