In a sense all Aboriginal art is political. Within Aboriginal communities art encodes Aboriginal Law. In relation to the Dreaming, it encodes rights and responsibilities to land and social divisions. These are enacted through cultural practice:

• in body painting;
• in ceremonial life; and
• in the production of paintings and other objects.

With colonisation, Aboriginal art began operating in a wider arena. Aborigines have also engaged in cross-cultural exchange to educate Europeans and help them understand Aboriginal values. As a result art has come to assume greater importance as an expression of Indigenous identity in relation to the nation state.

Let's look at the way the politics of Aboriginal art operates inside and outside Indigenous communities.

Cross-cultural exchange

Aborigines have always used art as a form of advocacy to assist in cross-cultural exchange. For three hundred years Yolngu in northeast Arnhem Land engaged in "rituals of diplomacy" (Morphy, p. 227) with Macassan visitors. Today Aborigines use the same tactics in their political struggles for recognition.

Engaging the other

In the exchange between Yolngu of north east Arnhem Land and Macassans we see how Aborigines established a working relationship with Macassans by incorporating them into their own "local symbolic universe" (Morphy p. 234) and by engaging in trade. The history of this interaction is recorded in Yolngu art and ceremonial life.

Morphy suggests that Aborigines similarly sought to engage the interest of Europeans, develop their understanding of Aboriginal culture and respect for their rights.

Since the 1970s the term 'land rights' has come to refer to the political struggles of Indigenous people to recover land taken from them in the process of colonisation. It is also concerned with recovering a degree of autonomy and independence under policies of self-determination.

Bark Petition

The Bark Petition (1963) was the earliest statement of land rights. The bark petition protested against the proposed excision of Yolngu land for bauxite mining. The bark petition written in English and Gumatj took the form of two bark paintings each with a border of painted designs by landowners of the Dhuwa and Yirritja moieties. Morphy writes:

The genius of the bark petition was that it introduced Aboriginal symbolism into parliamentary discourse (Morphy, p. 254).

The Bark Petition did not stop the development of mining at Yirrkala, but the resulting publicity and the court case of 1971 was influential in gaining support for the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act (Cwlth) of 1976.

Yunupingu: The black/white conflict...

Yirrkala elder Galarruwuy Yunupingu, was one of the delegates who handed the Bark Petition to the House of Representatives in 1963. For Galarrwuy, the Bark Petition showed, "the ancient rights and responsibilities we have towards our country" (Yunupingu, p. 65).

He writes about the history of colonisation from an Aboriginal perspective, about the "rape and destruction of a land and its people" (Yunupingu, p. 64).

Galarrwuy Yunupingu points out that painting was important to Aboriginal people for millennia prior to colonisation and it continues to be important in political struggles for survival.

When we paint - whether it is on our bodies for ceremony or on bark or canvas for the market- we are not just painting for fun or profit. We are painting as we have always done to demonstrate our continuing link with our country (Yunupingu, p. 65).

Namatjira: a modern artist

Albert Namatjira is Australia's first modern Aboriginal artist. Namatjira emerged to national fame in the 1940s and 1950s with his watercolour landscapes of the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. In his own lifetime Namatjira and his art were viewed as a symbol of successful assimilation. Aborigines saw him otherwise, as a political figure who achieved a fundamental shift in colonial attitudes and provided a role model for the contemporary Aboriginal art movement.

Although Namatjira created a new style of Aboriginal art he was still painting country.

Look at Albert Namatjira's watercolour of The Western MacDonnell Ranges (1957) (Morphy, Illustration 183). Compare it with the work of Rex Battarbee, Namatjira's teacher (Morphy, Illustration 182).

Look at the many different focal points and the mosaic of patterns in Namatjira's work.

Also look at the work of another member of the Hermannsburg School, Otto Pareroultja (Morphy, Illustration 185).

McLean: The Aboriginal renaissance...

Ian McLean traces the history of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement beginning with the controversies that were generated around the Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira (1902-1959). By the late 1960s highly organised political activism, fuelled by Black Power groups in Northern America, created a groundswell of pan-Aboriginality. Aboriginal artists in remote communities and in the cities have used art as a means of empowerment and a means of engaging in dialogue.

Art as dialogue

Look at following art works to see how Aborigines have used art to engage us in dialogue.

• Various artists, The Yirrkala Bark Petition, 1963, (Morphy, Illustrations 171-2).
  
• Various artists, The Barunga Statement, 1988, (Morphy, Illustration 173).
  
• Forecourt of Parliament House with mosaic by Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, 1988, (Morphy, Illustration 19).
  
• Paddy Dhatangu, David Malangi, George Milpurrurru, Jimmy Wululu and other Ramingining artists, The Aboriginal Memorial installation of 200 hollow log coffins 1987-8, (Morphy, Illustrations 20-21).

Discuss your response to these artworks on the Discussion Board.