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This forum is a response to the withdrawal of an artwork from the Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Project Room at the recent Melbourne Art Fair, after a complaint that it contravened protocols with regard to the representation of Aboriginal people. The artists, Helen Johnson and Michelle Ussher, had based a drawing upon a collage which included images from an old photograph of children from the Ernabella Community and did not have permission from the Community to do so. One of the artists contacted the Community to seek permission but in the time available this was not possible. As such protocols differ between Aboriginal communities, and in the light of this forum, I subsequently contacted the Ernabella Community to determine their position and to ask if they would like to make a statement. The Coordinator of Ernabella Arts remembered the incident and agreed to be quoted, stating that permission was not given at the time. In order to get permission, she explained, each of the ten children in the photograph would have to be identified and their descendants tracked down to give permission individually. That, she said, would be very time consuming (if at all possible) and would involve financing someone to do it as they themselves would not have time. The image in question is not reproduced here.
The artist who made the original complaint was invited and agreed initially to participate in this forum, but unfortunately has not been available to do so.
The incident and the discussion below raise important questions regarding the representation of Indigenous people and use of Indigenous imagery by white (and black) artists, of appropriation, copyright, moral rights, institutional racism and censorship. Our aim... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline