My most recent article for Eureka Street explored the level of engagement of indigenous Australians in the emerging social networking space.
I saw the film Ten Canoes on the weekend of the fortieth anniversary of the referendum in Australia that recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are citizens of Australia. This film has a fabulous website that provides a great deal of detail about how the film was made and the underpinning involvement and creative control of the Arnhem Land community in which it was filmed. The film became their story and used devices important in their cultural history to tell a narrative that is compelling to both non-indigenous and indigenous viewers.
Actor Crusoe Kurddal has entries for his art at http://www.moragalleries.com.au/ckurddal/crusoe.html while Richard Birrinbirrin’s art can be found at http://www.bulabula-arts.com/artists/artist.php?id=9 and peter Minygululu has some of his art available through http://www.bulabula-arts.com/artists/index.php. Lead actor Peter Minygululu paints the story of his father’s country — the land around Mirrngatja on the eastern side of the Arafura Swamp and one of the sites visited by the Wagilag Sisters. The story of the Wagalak (or Wagilag) Sisters, a creation story told across Arnhem Land, is brought to life in the Dust Echoes project.Other people of the Ganalbingu include Daphne Banyawarra, didgeridoo maker and academic at Charles Darwin university who has contributed the views, thoughts and memories of the life of the Yolngu in her profile on the website of the iDIDJ Australia.However, Daphne Banyawarra does not even begin to approach the level of continually updated and expanded thought found in most blogs.Blogs about Australian indigenous issues tend to be authored by the politically active non-indigenous supporters of Aboriginal rights such as the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) in order to communicate with their online supporters.
White eyes looking in on a community is the focus of the non-political blog of Dianne Isgar who is an Art Centre Manager for the Papulankutja Artists. Dianne’s blog captures some aspects of life for for the Western Desert Mob in the remote area of Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia Australia.
While researching this article I found some interesting non-indigenous sites focussed on indigenous issues, particularly art at Aboriginal Art & Culture: an American eye, http://homepage.mac.com/will_owen/iblog which is a collection of personal reflections and readings by Will Owen on the art of the indigenous people of Australia, their culture, anthropological studies, the art market, and whatever else strays across the cultural horizon.
