ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS KEEPING PLACES & BEYOND: Building cultural futures in NSW a reader presented by supported by Museums & Galleries NSW is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW. Keeping Places and Beyond 1 INDEX OVERVIEW AGENCIES With respect, opportunities open 2 State Agencies and Non-Government Agencies 68 The Value of Place 4 State Records Authority of NSW 68 This summit and Museums & Galleries NSW 5 Museums & Galleries NSW 68 Museums, Keeping Places and Repatriation 6 Regional Arts NSW 69 PEOPLE & PLACES Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive 70 Goondee Keeping Place, Lightning Ridge 10 NSW Aboriginal Land Council 71 Laddie Timbery’s Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Huskisson 12 Local Government & Shires Association of NSW 71 Badger Bates, Wilcannia 14 NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group 72 Dharriwaa Elders Group, Walgett 16 Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Eden 18 FUNDING BODIES Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum 20 Federal Government 74 Wiradjuri Condoblin Corporation, Condoblin 22 The Office for the Arts 74 Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, Armidale 24 Australia Council for the Arts 74 Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, Leichhardt 26 Department of Education, Employment and Workplace People of the Reeds, Cabbage Tree Island 28 Relations (DEEWR) 77 Boolarng Nangamai Aboriginal Art & Culture Studio, Gerringong 30 Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, 32 Euraba Paper Company, Boggabilla Population and Communities 79 Tribal Warrior, Redfern and Sydney Harbour 34 81 Dhiiyaan Indigenous Unit, Moree 36 National Agencies Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre, Deniliquin 38 Regional Arts Australia 81 Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance Aboriginal Corp, Mid-North Coast 40 NAVA 81 North Sydney Aboriginal Heritage Office, Northbridge 43 The Arts Law Centre of Australia 81 Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul 46 Viscopy 81 Kamilaroi Keeping Place at Moree Plains Gallery, Moree 48 Copyright Agency Limited 82 BEYOND THE CASE STUDIES Quick grant finder websites 83 Community Builders 83 Beyond the case studies 50 Grant Guru 83 RESOURCES Grants Link 83 Cultural Institutions in NSW 52 NSW Reconcilliation Council 83 Australian Museum 52 Free websites 83 State Library of NSW 53 Art Gallery of NSW 54 PROTOCOL DOCUMENTS Powerhouse Museum 55 Cultural protocols, including Welcome to Country/ NSW Government Departments 56 Acknowledgement of Country: 84 NSW Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Heritage and Languages 84 56 Infrastructure Artform, museums and galleries 85 Arts NSW 56 Media protocols 85 Office of Aboriginal Affairs NSW 57 Office of Environment and Heritage, Department Education and research 86 of Premier and Cabinet 58 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS All photographs are used with PLEASE NOTE: permission. May contain names or images of deceased people. All language spellings are as provided by authors and interviewees. presented by supported by OVERVIEW With respect, opportunities open It starts and ends with recognition and across NSW is more vibrant and active In bringing together so many people models from interstate and overseas respect. than most would expect. Still, much with divergent experience and and extract from sector case studies, of the great work occurs in isolation, roles in the sector, from heritage issues and themes for development. NSW has the largest Aboriginal is often project based and requires and environment management and There will be group discussions population in Australia, yet the dedicated research to uncover. There protection, arts and culture, traditional sessions on the second day to focus distinctive art and cultures of is no one site, physical or virtual, that knowledge keepers and practitioners, on ideas and recommendations. Aboriginal NSW underperform in terms accumulates, stores and presents this education, industry and investment, of visibility and success alongside their knowledge and experience, linking local government and more, we have This reader is designed to help you counterparts in every other mainland heritage, arts and cultural practice as been guided by this model of the prepare for your attendance at the state. understood by Aboriginal people. sector: summit. Aboriginal art and cultures of NSW The summit, Keeping Places & Beyond: have competed for recognition Building cultural futures in NSW is an alongside Western, multicultural and opportunity to bring together these multimedia art movements as well as individuals and organisations with those Aboriginal arts and culture from the keen to learn about maintaining and rest of Australia. There are historical invigorating arts and culture in their reasons for this, starting with NSW communities, along with Government as the site of first and arguably and other support organisations who greatest cultural disruption, through can help. Produced by Museums & to the emergence of Sydney as an Galleries NSW with core funding from international city with accompanying Arts NSW, it is also supported by expectations of being a showcase for the NSW Office of Aboriginal Affairs all that is uniquely Australian. and NSW Aboriginal Land Council. The summit will produce a platform Yet, as this publication reveals, the paper and key recommendations for Aboriginal arts and cultural sector supporting the sector. Indigenous Population Distribution 2006 While local issues will still require The holistic nature of Aboriginal Summit: Keeping Places & local solutions, the summit will provide culture means a multidisciplinary Beyond: Building cultural futures a state-wide forum to discuss what approach is appropriate and in NSW has and hasn’t worked, models of possible: visual arts, artefacts and Location: Carriageworks, operation and governance and grass archival material, genealogies, Everleigh, Sydney roots suggestions for sustaining and libraries, photographs, performance, Dates: 19th and 20th of improving the sector for this and future storytelling, music, dance, oral September 2011 generations. histories, ecology of the natural Objective: Bring together leading landscape, sustainable living, practitioners in Aboriginal cultural Our time together may be brief, a astronomy and education all have their maintenance and development mere two days on the 19th and 20th place. Living centres for living cultures from across NSW to understand of September 2011, but the program also means places for community site-based best practice is designed to present the broad functions, festivals and markets, Aim: To build sector capacity and context in which we operate, new ceremonies and celebrations. visibility Source: Populations Characteristics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait developments on the horizon, key Islander Australians, Australia, 2006 (cat. no. 4713.0) Building cultural futures 2 Building cultural futures 3 OVERVIEW The Value of Place more competitive, products, part of the Regional Arts centres provide opportunities whether art, artefacts, bush foods NSW network of Regional Arts not only for Aboriginal artists Places and spaces are the starting or “cultural tourism experiences” Development Officers (RADOs) but for arts workers, for example point for building cultural futures rarely provide stable income Aboriginal curators, to learn and in NSW, providing opportunities streams as stand alones • Further education through regional hewn their skills. Participants for engagement, interaction and TAFE’s and universities has played suggested that new and less well- experience. Places can be purpose • Successful organisations have a role in helping organisations known Aboriginal artists often built structures or in situ, such as developed strong governance and establish themselves both in do not get access to venues that those managed by NSW National business management as well as arts practice and business non-Aboriginal artists would use Parks & Wildlife. The roles of heritage quality, reliable products development to get their start, and that this management, keeping places, was an important justification transmission of knowledge, arts and • There is increased support in • There remains strong interest for Aboriginal arts and cultural cultural practice, cultural enterprise general across Government but in tapping into cultural tourism centres and the internet as a platform for no universal model of funding experience markets even though virtual spaces will be central to the opportunities. Also, years few successful models exist. • Another potential purpose discussions and recommendations. of project funding does not New means of communication participants gave for Aboriginal necessarily result in organisational via the internet and other media arts and cultural centres is Can keeping places engage funding and stability may help build audiences through to provide the facilities and communities? How do not-for-profit aggregated websites. Also the equipment (kilns, presses, etc) for centres successfully develop cultural • There is strong understanding Regional Arts NSW research Aboriginal artists to do their work. enterprise? What protocols should of the role of heritage in paper, Determining Training and This is particularly important given there be around knowledge sharing on communities: traditional Education Needs in the NSW the high cost of people equipping the internet? What opportunities can knowledge and cultural practice, Aboriginal Visual Arts Sector, by themselves, which acts as a be created for education and training, language documentation, Ruben Allas and Annette Easie