In conjunction with the exhibition CROSSING CULTURES at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, NH a symposium titled, “Together Alone: The politics of Indigeneity and Culture in Australia” discussed how the historic separation of art and anthropology justified a disciplinary monopolization of knowledge that stood apart from Indigenous Knowing. This raises critical issues surrounding the reception and recognition of Indigenous art and the politics of Indigeneity in an increasingly globalized world. The\u00a0\u00a0idea of Indigeneity and Indigenous Knowing is fundamental to the contemporary Aboriginal art movement that originated\u00a0\u00a0in the 1970s in the settlement of Papunya Tula where Aboriginal people first came into contact with acrylic paints and were encouraged to paint on canvas.\u00a0\u00a0The introduction of non-indigenous media to Aboriginal communities across Australia has had huge impact on their social and cultural\u00a0\u00a0identity. According to French anthropologist Francoise Dussart, “Scrutinising painters’ motivation to paint Dreaming stories for sale reveals how the production of acrylics provided a site where identity politics are negotiated among generations, between genders, and among painters, art coordinators and the Australian society at large.”\u00a0\u00a0Indigenous art that uses Western materials and art markets\u00a0\u00a0cannot be understood without analyzing\u00a0\u00a0the effects of post colonial influences.<\/p>\n
Participants at the Hood symposium included Brenda L. Croft from the Gurindji people,\u00a0Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Experimental Arts, College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales, Sydney; Hetti Perkins, former curator Indigenous Art Art Gallery New South Wales; Stephen Gilchrist, Curator of Indigenous Australian Art at the Hood Museum of Art; Sonia Smallacombe from the Maramanindji people, Social Affairs Officer Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations; Christian Thompson, from the Bidjara people, visual and performance artist and doctoral candidate at Oxford University, United Kingdom.<\/p>\n