Indigenous : An Analytical and Cultural Survey

Class code ANTH-UA 9038 – 001 or SCA-UA 9836 – 001

Instructor Petronella Vaarzon-Morel Details [email protected] Consultations by appointment. Please allow at least 24 hours for your instructor to respond to your emails.

Class Details Spring 2017

Indigenous Australian Art: An Analytical and Cultural Survey

Wednesday, 12:30 – 3:30pm February 1 to May 10 Room 202 NYU Academic Centre Science House: 157 – 161 Gloucester Street, The Rocks, 2000

Prerequisites None

Class This course is a survey of the principal themes and issues in the development of Indigenous Description art in . It focuses on some of the regional and historical variations of Aboriginal art in the context of the colonisation of Australia, while considering the issues of its circulation and evaluation within contemporary discourses of value. Topics include the cosmological dimensions of the art, its political implications, its relationship to cultural and national identity, and its aesthetic frameworks. There will be four required fieldtrips/excursions during which students will visit some of the major collections of Indigenous Australian art as well as exhibitions of contemporary works. There will also be guest presentations from Indigenous artists and Indigenous curators of art.

Required field trip/excursions: Guided tour of Aboriginal rock art sites at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Session 4 (NB: Friday class, 24 February) with Matt Poll, Curator of Indigenous Heritage and Repatriation Project, Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney.

Sentient Lands Exhibition and Our lands Exhibition, Yiribana Gallery at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Session 6 (NB: Friday class, 3 March)

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Student presentations on selected art work in Yiribana Gallery, Session 10, Wednesday 12 April

Desired As a result of successfully completing this course, students will be able to: Outcomes • Demonstrate knowledge of the diversity of Indigenous —ranging from acrylic paintings of the Western Desert to bark paintings of Arnhem Land to urban, politically motivated works in various media (including photography, sculpture, print-making, etc.) and reflect critically on the ways in which it is displayed. • Think about these works both as objectifications of cultural expression (Aboriginal histories, religious beliefs, cultural/linguistic practices) and as political interventions. • Appreciate the role of anthropology/art history in defining “Aboriginal art” as a genre of high art; think about “Aboriginal art” as itself an intercultural production, and be able to thoughtfully address our own participation in defining this category on various markets/multiple regimes of value. • Relate case studies in Indigenous arts to broader themes, including the definition of race/Aboriginality in Australia; the recognition and representation of in various forms (the constitution, art museums, media); how value is understood/accrued on markets; destabilising dichotomies between remote/urban, art/craft, ethnography/art, prehistory/history; defining and problematising “authenticity,” and appropriation” and many more.

Assessment This course is comprised of in-class seminars and field trips—to best expose students to Components various nodes in the Indigenous Australian art world. Students will also be expected to attend at least one major exhibition of Indigenous Australian art, in addition to any officially organised field trips.

Class participation includes two components: 1) Active engagement in discussions and respectful listening; collaborative group work as occasionally assigned (10%). 2) 15 minute presentation of course materials during the semester (to be decided via student sign-up on the first class). You will need to summarise authors’ arguments, present major themes, and raise questions for further discussion. Collaboration with another student may be necessary depending on numbers. Film/video/web clips and/or PowerPoint are welcome but not required (10%).

Review of a current exhibition of Indigenous Australian art in Sydney: 4-5 pages; (15%) Your instructor will provide a listing with addresses. • Due by 12.30pm Session 7

Presentation on a work of art: 10 minutes; (15%).

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Visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales and select and research one work of art by an Indigenous artist that is on display and prepare a 10 minute, object-centered talk on this work. We will be presenting in front of the selected works in the Yiribana Gallery at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. • Due by 12.30pm Session 10

Profile of an art producing community: 4-5 pages; (15%) You will compose a profile of an Indigenous art producing community in Australia detailing its first experiments with making art for the public domain. Please specify the cultural, historic, stylistic negotiations that informed the community’s adaptive practices and include some information on one of its better-known members. • Due by 12.30pm Session 12

Final Research paper: 10 pages; (35%) Write on a significant topic/issue in Aboriginal art using at least three of the class readings. Assessment criteria and a list of suggestions will be distributed in session 8; you may also choose your own topic/issue in consultation with the lecturer. Please schedule an in-person conversation; email is not sufficient. • Due by 12.30pm 12 May Session 14

Written work must include appropriate and consistent citations and references (reference lists are not included in the required number of pages); please follow NYU’s Style Guide available on the NYU Classes site for our course (check under “Resources”).

Failure to submit or fulfill any required course component will result in failure of the class.

For this course your total numerical score, calculated from the components listed above, is converted to a letter grade without rounding.

Assessment Grade A: Excellent performance showing a thorough knowledge and understanding of Expectations the topics of the course; all work includes clear, logical explanations, insight, and original thought and reasoning.

Grade B: Good performance with general knowledge and understanding of the topics; all work includes general analysis and coherent explanations showing some independent reasoning, reading and research.

Grade C: Satisfactory performance with some broad explanation and reasoning; the work will typically demonstrate an understanding of the course on a basic level.

Grade D: Passable performance showing a general and superficial understanding of the course’s topics; work lacks satisfactory insight, analysis or reasoned explanations.

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Grade F: Unsatisfactory performance in all assessed criteria. Work is weak, unfinished or unsubmitted.

Grade This course uses the following scale of numerical equivalents to letter grades: Conversions A 94 to 100 A- 90 to < 94 B+ 87 to < 90 B 84 to < 87 B- 80 to < 84 C+ 77 to < 80 C 74 to < 77 C- 70 to < 74 D+ 67 to < 70 D 65 to < 67 F 0 to < 65

Submission of Should work be submitted as a hard copy, or electronically? Work Unless otherwise specified, all written work must be submitted as a hard copy. The majority of written assignments must also be submitted electronically via NYU Classes. All in-class presentations must be completed during class time.

Who may submit a student’s work? Each student’s assigned work must be handed in personally by that student. The student may not nominate another person to act on his/her behalf.

When and where should the work be submitted? The hard copy of any written work must be submitted to the instructor at the beginning of class on the date the work is due. If the assignment due date falls outside of class time, work must be submitted to the Staff Member on duty in Room 2.04 during prescribed Office Hours (11:30am-12:30pm and 2:30-3:30pm Mon-Thu), or by appointment with the Academic Programs Coordinator. Each submitted item of work received in Room 2.04 will be date and time stamped in the presence of the student. Work submitted in Room 2.04 will not be considered “received” unless formally stamped.

What is the Process for Late Submission of Work? After the due date, work may only be submitted under the following conditions: • Late work, even if an extension has been granted, must be submitted in person by appointment with the Academic Programs Coordinator. Each submitted item of work must be date and time stamped in order to be considered “received”. • Work submitted after the submission time without an agreed extension receives a penalty of 2 points on the 100-point scale (for the assignment) for each day the work is late. Written work submitted beyond five weekdays after the submission

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date without an agreed extension receives a mark of zero, and the student is not entitled to feedback for that piece of work. • Because failure to submit or fulfil any required course component will result in failure of the course, it is crucial for students to submit every assignment even when it will receive a mark of zero. Early departure from the program therefore places the student at risk of failing the course.

Plagiarism The academic standards of New York University apply to all coursework at NYU Sydney. Policy NYU Sydney policies are in accordance with New York University’s plagiarism policy. The presentation of another person’s words, ideas, judgment, images or data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism.

It is a serious academic offense to use the work of others (written, printed or in any other form) without acknowledgement. Cases of plagiarism are not dealt with by your instructor. They are referred to the Director, who will determine the appropriate penalty (up to and including failure in the course as a whole) taking into account the codes of conduct and academic standards for NYU’s various schools and colleges.

Attendance Study abroad at Global Academic Centres is an academically intensive and immersive Policy experience, in which students from a wide range of backgrounds exchange ideas in discussion-based seminars. Learning in such an environment depends on the active participation of all students. And since classes typically meet once or twice a week, even a single absence can cause a student to miss a significant portion of a course. To ensure the integrity of this academic experience, class attendance at the centres is mandatory, and unexcused absences will affect students' semester grades. The class roster will be marked at the beginning of class and anyone who arrives after this time will be considered absent. Students are responsible for making up any work missed due to absence.

For courses that meet once a week, one unexcused absence will be penalised by a two percent deduction from the student’s final course grade. For courses that meet two or more times a week, the same penalty will apply to two unexcused absences. Repeated absences in a course may result in failure.

Faculty cannot excuse an absence. Requests for absences to be excused must be directed to the Academic Programs Coordinator. Students must provide appropriate documentation for their absence. In the case of illness, students must contact the Academic Programs Coordinator on the day of absence. They must provide medical documentation to Academic Programs Coordinator within three days of the absence in order to be medically excused. The note must include a medical judgement indicating that the student was unfit to attend class/work on the specific day or dates of the absence. Faculty will be informed of excused absences by the Academic Programs staff.

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Classroom This is a seminar subject and requires the active participation of all students. It also Expectations requires engaged discussion, including listening to and respecting other points of view. Your behaviour in class should respect your classmates’ desire to learn. It is important for you to focus your full attention on the class, for the entire class period. • Arrive to class on time. • Once you are in class, you are expected to stay until class ends. Leaving to make or take phone calls, to meet with classmates, or to go to an interview, is not acceptable behaviour. • Phones, digital music players, and any other communications or sound devices are not to be used during class. That means no phone calls, no texting, no social media, no email, and no internet browsing at any time during class. • Laptop computers and tablets are not to be used during class except in rare instances for specific class-related activity expressly approved by your instructor. • The only material you should be reading in class is material assigned for that class. Reading anything else, such as newspapers or magazines, or doing work from another class, is not acceptable. • Class may not be recorded in any fashion – audio, video, or otherwise – without permission in writing from the instructor.

Diversity, NYU is committed to building a culture that respects and embraces diversity, inclusion, and Inclusion and equity, believing that these values – in all their facets – are, as President Andrew Hamilton Equity has said, “…not only important to cherish for their own sake, but because they are also vital for advancing knowledge, sparking innovation, and creating sustainable communities.” At NYU Sydney we are committed to creating a learning environment that: • fosters intellectual inquiry, research, and artistic practices that respectfully and rigorously take account of a wide range of opinions, perspectives, and experiences; and • promotes an inclusive community in which diversity is valued and every member feels they have a rightful place, is welcome and respected, and is supported in their endeavours.

Religious Students observing a religious holiday during regularly scheduled class time are entitled to Observance miss class without any penalty to their grade. This is for the holiday only and does not include the days of travel that may come before and/or after the holiday. Students must notify their professor and the Academic Programs Coordinator in writing via email one week in advance before being absent for this purpose.

Provisions to Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in a class are students with encouraged to contact the Moses Centre for Students with Disabilities at (212) 998-4980 Disabilities

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as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. For more information, see Study Away and Disability.

Required Texts

It is a course expectation that you have done the required reading and have prepared sufficiently to discuss them in class.

• Howard Morphy, Aboriginal Art. London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998.

Supplemental Texts

• Brenda Croft (Curator) Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial 1st ed., 2007 • Peter Sutton, Dreamings, The Art of Aboriginal Australia, 1998 • Margo Neale, The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture • Benjamin Genocchio. Dollar Dreaming: Inside the Aboriginal Art World. Hardie Grant Books, 2008 • Fred Myers, Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art. Duke, 2002. • Hetti Perkins, Art and Soul • Hetti Perkins, One Sun One Moon • Altman, Jon C & Perkins, Hetti 2004, Crossing country the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney • Shirley W. Wiencke, When the Wattles Bloom Again: The Life and Times of William Barak, Last Chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe, 1984 • Ian McLean, How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary Art (2011) • Margie West (ed.) Yalangbara: Art of the Djang'kawu (2009) • Hetti Perkins and Jonathan Jones Half Light: Portraits from Black Australia, • Luke Taylor, Painting the Land Story, 1999 • Pamela McClusky and Wally Caruana, Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art, Seattle Art Museum • Catherine Summerhayes, The Moving Images of Tracey Moffatt • Margo Neale (ed.) Utopia: The Genius of • Alison French, Seeing the Centre: The art of 1902-1959 (2002), National Gallery of Australia • Lane, Carly and Franchesca Cubillo (eds) Undisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial. National Gallery of Australia (2012) • Bardon, Geoffrey and James Bardon. : A Place Made After the Story. The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement. The Miegunyah Press, (2007) [2004] . • Jane Lyndon (ed.) Calling the Shots: Aboriginal Photographies. Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014 • Jennifer L. Biddle Remote Avant-Garde : Aboriginal Art Under Occupation, Duke University Press 2016

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Session 1 What is Indigenous Art? A Journey to Recognition. Wednesday 1 February

Required Reading: • Howard Morphy. “A Journey to Recognition: The “Discovery” of Aboriginal Art” in Aboriginal Art, London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998, pp. 13–64.

Recommended Reading: • Jolene Ricard “Absorbing or Obscuring the Absence of a Critical Space in the Americas for Indigeneity: The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian,” Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 52, Harvard University: Peabody Museum Press, Boston, Fall, 2007, pp. 85–93.

In-class Media: The Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony, Part 3, “Awakening”.

Homework Assignment: Research the Indigenous peoples from your hometown or city and write one or two paragraphs based on your findings. Please be prepared to present and discuss briefly on the bus (Session 2)

Session 2 Indigenous Art in the 19th Century: William Barak, Tommy McRae and Mickey of Ulladulla. Wednesday 8 February

Guest Lecturer: Stephen Gilchrist

Required Reading: • Howard Morphy, “Chapter Ten: Documents of Change The Art of William Barak and Tommy McRae”, in Aboriginal Art, London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998, pp. 353-368. • Carol Cooper, “Remembering Barak” in Remembering Barak, , National Gallery of Victoria, 2003, pp. 15-39.

Selected reading • Andrew Sayers, “Drawing Contemporary Art” in Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, Melbourne: Oxford University Press in association with the National Gallery of Australia, 1994, pp. 50-59.

In Class Media: clips from: • Culture Victoria Joy Murphy on her uncle, William Barak http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/william- barak/5729/auntie-joy-wandin-murphy-speaks-about-william-barak/ • Jonathan Jones on William Barak Commission at the National Gallery of Victoria http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/multimedia/view/?mediaid=569273 • Murruwaygu: following in the footsteps of our ancestors http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/earshot-25-november/6810042

Homework Assignment: Visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales and select and begin research on one work of art by an Indigenous artist that is currently on display. Most of the Indigenous works are exhibited

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in the Yiribana Gallery which is on the lower ground floor of the Gallery. You will need to take the escalators down three levels to reach the Yiribana Gallery. This research will form the basis of a 10 minute talk that you will deliver in front of the selected work and in front of your class mates in Week 10. Please email me your selection by 22 February to avoid duplication and to ensure that the work will still be on display for our presentations. Every day at 11am, the Art Gallery of New South Wales offers free-guided tours of its Indigenous collection in the Yiribana Gallery, departing from the main Information Desk. Consider joining one of these or other free-guided tours. Please note that Indigenous art is hung throughout the Gallery and isn’t just on the lower ground floor.

NO CLASS 15 FEBRUARY

Session 3 First Citizen: Albert Namatjira and the . Wednesday 22 February

Required Reading: • Howard Morphy, “Transformations: The Contemporary Art of Central Australia” in Aboriginal Art, London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998, pp. 261–282. • Brenda L Croft “Albert’s Gift,” in Australian Aboriginal Art, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 70–75.

Selected Reading: • Philip Jones, “Namatjira: Traveller between two worlds,” in The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia, Port Melbourne, Victoria: William Heinemann Australia, Jane Hardy, J.V.S. Megaw, and Ruth Megaw, eds., 1992, pp. 97–136.

Recommended Reading: • Alison French, ed. Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902-1959, National Gallery of Australia, , 2002, pp. 1–35.

In Class Media: • http://bighart.org/project/namatjira/ The • First Citizen: Albert Namatjira. Directed by John Tristram, 1989, 54 mins.

Session 4 The Memory of Place: Aboriginal rock engravings of Sydney and Murujuga Friday 24 February

Guest speaker: Matt Poll

Required Reading and Viewing: • Val Attenbrow, Sydney's Aboriginal past: Investigating the archaeological and historical records. Sydney, UNSW Press, 2010, pp. 160–163; 178–180; and 184–185. • Video “Managing Aboriginal Rock Art”, 19.47 min. at http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nswcultureheritage/RockArt.htm

Recommended Reading:

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• Robert G Bednarik, “The Survival of the Murujuga (Burrup) Petroglyphs,” Rock Art Research 19 (1), 2002, pp. 29–40.

Required field trip/excursion: Guided tour of Aboriginal rock art sites at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park with Matt Poll, Curator of Indigenous Heritage and Repatriation Project, Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney. This excursion will be instead of the regularly scheduled class time at the Academic Centre. We will meet at the Academic Centre and a bus will take us to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, which will take approximately 45 minutes. Depending on traffic, we may be a little late returning to Sydney. Please wear comfortable closed-toed shoes, as we will be walking on uneven, rocky and sometimes steep paths. A hat, sunscreen, sunglasses and a bottle of water are recommended for the field trip. This trip will be in lieu of class from 1:00 – 4:00pm.

Session 5 Papunya: Genesis and Genius? Wednesday 1 March

Required Reading: • Howard Morphy, “Transformations: The Contemporary Art of Central Australia” in Aboriginal Art, London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998, pp. 281–316 (beginning at last paragraph)

Selected Reading: • Fred Myers. “Truth, Beauty and Pintupi Painting.” Visual Anthropology, Vol 2, 1989, pp. 163–195

Recommended Reading: • Fred Myers, “Representing culture: The production of discourse(s) for Aboriginal acrylic paintings”, Cultural Anthropology, 6, 1, 1991, pp 26–62. • Geoff Bardon, “The Money Belongs to the Ancestors.” in : Genesis and Genius, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, eds., 2000, pp. 99–203

In Class Media: Excerpts from Mr Patterns (2004), dir. Catriona McKenzie (55 mins)

Session 6 Marking country, social relations and self: artistic practices in Warlpiri and Anmatyer communities. Friday 3 March

Required Reading: • Françoise Dussart, “A Body Painting in Translation” in Rethinking Visual Anthropology, New Haven, Yale University Press, Howard Morphy and Marcus Banks, eds., 1997, pp. 186–202. • Vaarzon-Morel, P. ‘Continuity and Change in Warlpiri Practices of Marking the Landscape’ In William A. Lovis and Robert Whallon (eds.) Marking the Land: Hunter-Gatherer Creation of Meaning in their Environment. Routledge Studies in Archaeology. 2016, pp. 201-230.

Selected reading • Jennifer Biddle. “Country, Skin, Canvas: The Intercorporeal Art of ” in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2003, pp. 61–76.

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Required field trip/excursion: Art Gallery of NSW, Yiribana Gallery. We will view the two exhibitions: “Sentient Lands” and “Our Lands”. This trip will be in lieu of class from 1:00 – 4:00pm.

Session 7 Northeast, Central, and Western Arnhem Land: Contact, Collections and Cultural Practices Wednesday 8 March

Guest speaker: Djon Mundine

Required Reading: • Djon Mundine, “An Aboriginal Soliloquy” in They are Meditating Bark Paintings from the MCA’s Arnott’s Collection, Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008, pp. 15–31.

Selected Reading: • Luke Taylor, “Fire in the Water: Inspiration from Country” in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art” Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, Hetti Perkins, ed., pp. 116–130.

Assignment due: Review of a current exhibition of Indigenous art around Sydney: 4-5 pages; (15%)

SPRING BREAK: 13 – 17 March (Week 8)

Session 8 Eulogies in Ochre: Art from the East Kimberley and the Tiwi Islands Wednesday 22 March

Required Reading: • "Pedro Wonaeamirri: In Conversation" in One sun one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2007, Hetti Perkins and Margie West, eds., pp 132–137. • Marcia Langton, “Hungry Ghosts: Landscape and Memory,” in Blood on the Spinifex, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Bala Starr, ed., 2002, pp. 12–14.

Selected Reading: • Henry F Skerritt, "Strange Relatives: Negotiating the Borderlines in East Kimberley Painting," in Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2012, Stephen Gilchrist, ed., pp. 93–103.

In Class Media: Excerpts from Art and Soul, dir. Hetti Perkins; Putuparri and the Rainmakers, dir. Nicole Ma

NO CLASS 29 MARCH

Session 9 Daguerreotypes, Stereotypes, Prototypes: Reframing Indigenous Photography Wednesday 5 April

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Guest Lecturer: Stephen Gilchrist

Required Reading: • Hannah Fink, “Self-Evident: Indigenous Artists and the Photographic Image,” in One sun one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hetti Perkins and Margie West, eds., 2007, pp. 310–321.

Selected Reading 1: • Mick Dodson, “The End in the Beginning: Re(de)finding Aboriginality,” in Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians, Carlton, Vic. :Melbourne University Press, Michele Grossman, ed, 2003, pp. 25–42

Selected Reading 2: • Marianne Riphagen, “Black on White: or varying shades of grey? Indigenous Australian photo- media artists and the "making of" Aboriginality”, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Vol. 2008, No. 1, pp. 78–89.

Recommended Reading: • Jane Lyndon (ed.) Calling the Shots: Aboriginal Photographies Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014

In-class media: • Audio Interview: Jane Lyndon and Michael Aird, Calling the Shots: Aboriginal Photographies • photographies2/5359356http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2014/04/bay_20140402_1005. mp3 • Excerpts from Colour Theory with Richard Bell, Series 1 Episode 4, Nici Cumpston, (2013) dir. Richard Bell (25mins)

Session 10 Class Presentations Wednesday 12 April

We will be meeting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for our presentations on an Indigenous work of art in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Assignment due: Presentation on a work of art: 10 minutes; (15%)

Session 11 Alternative Models: Aboriginal Artists’ Cooperatives and the Indigenous Avant-Garde Wednesday 19 April

Guest Lecturer: Stephen Gilchrist

Required Reading: • Brenda L Croft, “Boomalli: From Little Things Big Things Grow” in Painting the Land Story, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, 1999, Luke Taylor, ed, pp. 95–118.

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Selected Reading: • Richard Bell, “Bell’s Theorem, Aboriginal Art: It’s a White Thing” in Remembering forward: Australian Aboriginal painting since 1960, Cologne, Museum Ludwig, 2010, Kasper König, Emily Joyce Evans, Falk Wolf, eds., pp. 152–161.

In Class Media: Excerpts from Art and Soul, dir. Hetti Perkins

Session 12 Aboriginal Art on the Market: Circulation and Value in/through Auctions, Art Centres, Galleries, Museums. Wednesday 26 April

Guest Speaker: Tim Klingender TBC (Tim Klingender, Former Director, Head of Aboriginal Art at Sotheby's will come to class and speak to us about his experiences with Sotheby’s and the current state of the Indigenous Art Market. He will also discuss the resale royalty act, cultural heritage export licenses for Indigenous art and the importance of provenance research.)

Required Reading: • Fred Myers, “Recontextualisations: The Traffic in Culture,” in Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, 2002, pp. 342–361.

Selected Reading: • Benjamin Genocchio, “Prologue: From the Deserts Profits Come” pp. 1–8; “An Art Market on Steroids” pp. 9–26; “Epilogue: Speculation or Adulation” pp. 213–219, in Dollar Dreaming: Inside the Aboriginal Art World, Prahran, Vic. :Hardie Grant, 2008.

Recommended Reading: • Haidy Geismar, “Alternative Market Values? Interventions into Auctions in Aotearoa/New Zealand,” The Contemporary Pacific Vol. 20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 291–327.

Assignment due: Profile of an Indigenous art producing community 4-5 pages; (15%)

Session 13 Indigenising Museums: Repatriation, Activism and the Politics of Curation Wednesday 3 May

Required Reading: • Christina Kreps, “Indigenous Curation, Museums and Intangible Cultural Heritage” in Intangible Heritage, Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa, eds, London, Routledge, 2009, pp. 193–208.

Selected Reading: • Lyndel V. Prott “The Dja Dja Wurrung Bark Etchings Case,” The International Journal of Cultural Property Vol. 13, No. 2, 2006, pp. 241–246.

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Selected Reading: • Elizabeth Willis, “The Law, Politics, and ‘Historical Wounds:’ The Dja Dja Wurrung Bark Etchings Case in Australia,” The International Journal of Cultural Property Vol. 15, No. 1, 2008, pp. 49–63.

Please come to class prepared to talk about you final research paper.

Session 14 Art: Culture, Visibility, and Survival Wednesday 10 May

Required Reading: • Faye Ginsburg and Fred Myers, “A history of Indigenous Futures: Accounting for Indigenous Art and Media.” Aboriginal History, Vol. 30, 2006, pp. 95–110.

Selected Reading: • Biddle, Jennifer L. “Introduction: The Imperative to Experiment” in Remote Avant- Garde : Aboriginal Art Under Occupation, Duke University Press, 2016, pp. 1-19.

Recommended Reading: • Howard Morphy, “Settler Australia: The Survival of Art in Adversity” in Aboriginal Art, London, England: Phaidon Press, 1998, pp. 317–352.

Homework Assignment. Please bring a coloured print out, or alternatively, email me at least two days before class, one or two images of your favourite Indigenous works that you have encountered during the semester. This will fuel our final discussions in class and we will co-curate an exhibition in class and invite NYUS staff to attend.

Assignment due: Final Research Paper due: Friday 12 May; (35%)

Your Instructor

Petronella Vaarzon-Morel (M.A., Indiana University) is a sociocultural anthropologist whose interests include Indigenous relations to the land, personhood, identity, visual culture and human-animal relations. Over many years she has conducted ethnographic research with Indigenous groups in central and northern Australia for Aboriginal land and Native Title claims, and for a range of other issues in such areas as environment management, the ‘stolen generation’ and history. In collaboration with Warlpiri she co- authored the book Warlpiri Women’s Voices.

Her academic publications include articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and she has presented papers at national and international conferences. In 2012 she was the recipient of an Anthropology of Native Title Services (ANTS) Research Fellowship, at the University of , and in 2013 a Research Writing Placement at the Centre for Native Title Anthropology, Australian National University. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Sydney on the project ' Re-integrating Central Australian community cultural collections'. Her pedagogic background includes a period teaching introductory anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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