The Aboriginal Flag as activist art

Abstract

Abstract Since the 1960s, art with overt social and political subject-matter has been widely practised, if not widely accepted in the western world. Activist art, I propose, is a distinct category of art-making within a larger grouping of socially engaged contemporary art practices that have emerged in recent decades: its primary intent is to achieve social change. The alliance of activism and art is rare, in part because the practice of activism and the discipline of art have different values and agendas: activism seeks to bring about social change; art-making seeks to create art. Art activism combines the values and agendas of both art and activism. In Australia, a handful of mainly Indigenous artworks have been successful activist artworks. This type of art, however, falls short of being an established and recognized genre of art-making with committed long-term practitioners. This article explores the parameters, and asserts the rationale for understanding the Aboriginal Flag as activist art, and more broadly the role of culture in Indigenous activism postcolonization. Surprisingly, the flag is neither understood as art, nor has it, in an academic framework, ever been studied as art or art activism.