Icons of colonial injustice: From photographs to public art

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Daniel Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Art ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Public Pedagogy ◽  
Dark Skin ◽  
Football Stadium

In the archive of Australian photography, few images point to the gross injustices experienced by Indigenous Australians more forcefully than a 1906 photograph depicting a group of Aboriginal people in neck chains. More recently, few images point to Indigenous self-empowerment more powerfully than a 1993 press photograph of footballer Nicky Winmar lifting his jumper to point proudly to his dark skin. This article explores the extraordinary legacy of these two images and specifically their translation into prominent contemporary public artworks ‐ respectively, a street mural in inner Melbourne and a statue located outside a major football stadium in Perth. I argue that by drawing on, but also extending, the original content of the images, these public translations of the photographs, and the story of their coming into being, become another chapter in the lives of the images. Moreover, in the shift from print to pavement, they transform public spaces into sites of public pedagogy.

scholarly journals Possibilities to Apply the Urban Acupuncture Concept in Kaunas: Social Aspect

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Aurelija Daugelaite ◽  
Indre Gražulevičiūte-Vileniške ◽  
Mantas Landauskas
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ecological Design ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The City

The concept of urban acupuncture, which has been gaining ground in recent decades, is based on the activation and revitalization of urban environments using small architectural or landscape architectural interventions in precise carefully selected locations of urban fabric. However, the rapid and unexpected design solutions of urban acupuncture, based on ecological design, nature dynamics, street art, material re-use, can cause different social and psychological reactions of urban population and these reactions may vary depending on cultural contexts. Consequently, in order to implement successful urban acupuncture projects in Lithuanian cities, it is very important to find out public opinion and priorities in the fields of public space management, aesthetics, and public art. The aim of the research was to analyze the opinion of Kaunas city residents regarding these issues. For this purpose, a sociological questionnaire survey was used. The questionnaire containing 20 questions was designed, with the aim to find out the trends of use of public spaces in the city, the attitudes of residents towards street art and other small-scale initiatives in public spaces implemented in the recent years, possibilities of creating landscape architecture based on ecological ideas in urban environment, the attitude of inhabitants towards community spaces and community space design in the city, etc. 100 residents of Kaunas participated in this online administered survey. The survey has demonstrated general positive attitude towards contemporary design trends of public spaces and public art; however, the surveyed population expressed preferences towards fully equipped public spaces offering possibilities for a wide range of activities.

scholarly journals ‘Bridging the gap’ through Australian cultural astronomy

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S278) ◽  
pp. 282-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane W. Hamacher ◽  
Ray P. Norris
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Variable Stars ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Ocean Tides ◽  
Special Events ◽  
Celestial Bodies

AbstractFor more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

The Planets in Aboriginal Australia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane W. Hamacher ◽  
Kirsten Banks
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Retrograde Motion ◽  
Synodic Period ◽  
Relative Brightness ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Evening Star

Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people are close observers of planets and their motions and properties. Indigenous Australians discerned between planets and stars by their placement in the sky and their general lack of scintillation. Traditions generally describe the ecliptic and zodiac as a pathway of sky ancestors represented by the sun, moon, and planets. This included observing the occasional backwards motion of sky ancestors as they communicate with each other during their journey across the sky, representing an explanation of retrograde motion. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people note the relative brightness of the planets over time and information about the roles they play in their traditions around Australia. Knowledge systems outline the importance placed on Venus as the morning and evening star, making connections to the object as it transitions form one to the other through observations and calculation of the planet’s synodic period. Traditions note the relative positions of the planets to the moon, sun, and background stars, as well as inter planetary dust through zodiacal light, which is perceived as a celestial rope connecting Venus to the sun. The relative dearth of descriptions of planets in Aboriginal traditions may be due to the gross incompleteness of recorded astronomical traditions and of ethnographic bias and misidentification in the anthropological record. Ethnographic fieldwork with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is revealing new, previously unrecorded knowledge about the planets and their related phenomena.

scholarly journals Western Australia’s Remote Indigenous Communities: A Case Against Closures and a Call For New Governance

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 209-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asta Hill
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
The Government

In the late 1970s thousands of Indigenous Australians initiated a movement back to the ancestral lands they had been removed from during the assimilationist era. Less than 50 years since their return to country, Aboriginal people living in Western Australia’s (WA) remote communities are again grappling with their impending redispossession. Wa Premier Colin Barnett’s announcement late last year was panic inducing: It is a problem that I do not want and the government does not want, but it is a reality. There are something like 274 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia—I think 150 or so of those are in the Kimberley itself—and they are not viable. They are not viable and they are not sustainable . . . I am foreshadowing that a number of communities are inevitably going to close.

MULTICULTURAL HISTORY OF THE REGION IN THE ACTIVITIES OF KĖDAINIAI REGIONAL MUSEUM

Via Latgalica ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 231
Author(s):  
Rimants Žirgulis
Keyword(s):  
Public Art ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Main Attention ◽  
Local Society ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The objective of this paper is to make a short review of influence of the multicultural history of the region and its using in the activities of Kėdainiai Regional Museum. Kėdainiai has a rich multicultural history and heritage, which are very often used by Kėdainiai Regional Museum and all of its six branches. The main attention is paying to educational and project activities. Discovering Kėdainiai as a place of intersection of various nations and cultures, a peculiar Atlantis of a borderland, sometimes by playing or reminding, preservation and nurturance of historical memory of local society, sometimes by public art as invasion into public spaces of town. Such activities of Kėdainiai Regional Museum help to get rid of provinciality and contribute to create the Lithuanian modern civilized nation, open to the world.

scholarly journals Does Australia have the appropriate health reform agenda to close the gap in Indigenous health?

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Donato ◽  
Leonie Segal
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Reform Strategy ◽  
Performance Gains

This paper provides an analysis of the national Indigenous reform strategy – known as Closing the Gap – in the context of broader health system reforms underway to assess whether current attempts at addressing Indigenous disadvantage are likely to be successful. Drawing upon economic theory and empirical evidence, the paper analyses key structural features necessary for securing system performance gains capable of reducing health disparities. Conceptual and empirical attention is given to the features of comprehensive primary healthcare, which encompasses the social determinants impacting on Indigenous health. An important structural prerequisite for securing genuine improvements in health outcomes is the unifying of all funding and policy responsibilities for comprehensive primary healthcare for Indigenous Australians within a single jurisdictional framework. This would provide the basis for implementing several key mutually reinforcing components necessary for enhancing primary healthcare system performance. The announcement to introduce a long-term health equality plan in partnership with Aboriginal people represents a promising development and may provide the window of opportunity needed for implementing structural reforms to primary healthcare. What is known about the topic? Notwithstanding the intention of previous policies, considerable health disparity exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Australia has now embarked on its most ambitious national Indigenous health reform strategy, but there has been little academic analysis of whether such reforms are capable of eliminating health disadvantage for Aboriginal people. What does the paper add? This paper provides a critical analysis of Indigenous health reforms to assess whether such policy initiatives are likely to be successful and outlines key structural changes to primary healthcare system arrangements that are necessary to secure genuine system performance gains and improve health outcomes for Indigenous Australians. What are the implications for practitioners? For policymakers, the need to establish genuine partnership and engagement between Aboriginal people and the Australian government in pursuing a national Indigenous reform agenda is of critical importance. The establishment of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples provides the opportunity for policymakers to give special status to Indigenous Australians in health policy development and create the institutional breakthrough necessary for effecting primary healthcare system change.

scholarly journals Improving Indigenous health through better medication management: an overview

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte de Crespigny ◽  
Inge Kowanko ◽  
Helen Murray ◽  
Carolyn Emden ◽  
Scott Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Medication Management ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Department Of Health

This paper provides an overview of a major South Australian research project with implications for the health of all Indigenous Australians. The researchers set out to explore the medication needs of Aboriginal people with mental health problems and found that most Aboriginal people have to deal with profound challenges to social and emotional wellbeing with significant medication implications. No previous research had investigated the problem of medication use by Aboriginal people in metropolitan, rural and remote locations to the depth and extent of this project. The research therefore is of widespread relevance and holds interest for many Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals and groups, consumers, service providers and policy-makers. As a research team comprising Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, we were committed to implementing strategies in the course of the project with immediate benefit to project participants as well as longer-term impact on improved use of medications. The design of the project enabled these strategic interventions and we are pleased to promote this model to other researchers. Recommendations from the project concern services, coordination of care, carers and family members, workforce education, and community development. Readers are advised where the project report and other published papers can be accessed. The project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.

scholarly journals In-Between Windowscapes. A Curator’s Perspective on Collaboration as Artistic Activation in Public Spaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 259-272
Author(s):  
Chun Wai (Wilson) Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Student Community ◽  
Artistic Collaboration ◽  
Curatorial Practice ◽  
Different Cultures

This paper emphasizes that curatorial practice and site-specific art are essential aspects of the transition from artistic collaboration to collaborative curatorial practice and discovers the new potential of ‘curator as collaborator’ practice to cultivate community-based, collaborative and engaging cultural projects in public spaces. By examining the curatorial residency of my participation in Public Space 50 at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 2017, this portfolio investigates how I, as a curator, explore art curation locations and methods to enable students to actively work collaboratively to plan, facilitate and produce public art projects. It asks how to turn public spaces into laboratories; how can student artists work together in public space; how to empower a creative student community through artistic collaboration and how artistic activation can be developed among creative participators of different cultures and backgrounds?

scholarly journals The Public Space of �Jogja Fashion Week Carnival� and Cosplay Clothing in Yogyakarta

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-245
Author(s):  
Deni Setiawan ◽  
Timbul Haryono ◽  
Agus Burhan
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Art Activities ◽  
Set Up

The concept of an ideal public space does not just focus on the interests of a particular group or community, but rather focus on the space of social activities that represent each audience or spectator in that society. Arts and cultural activities are part of it; although the concept of public space is still abstract to represent every social individual. However, the presence of public space has created a mediation space for all forms of communication. Mediation space is considered as a crucial feature, not only as a promotional sphere but also as a place to exchange and communicate all forms of ideology, art, and culture. Art activities such as Jogja Fashion Week Carnival and Cosplay clothing performance in public spaces provide opportunities for communities or individuals, to make this activity as a public performance and part of public art. Public art tends to be creative, free, and sometimes not accompanied by a theoretical perspective, as other arts are. Art activities in public spaces which are part of the social and cultural activities are essentially standing on the ideology that have been set up for a particular interest. The interest is disseminated using mass media and advertisment. Audience or public art connoisseur in public spaces should be more intelligent and critical to accept all kinds of art activities and performances. Therefore the performance will have a balanced communication.AbstrakKonsep ruang publik yang ideal tidak saja berbicara kepentingan golongan atau komunitas tertentu, tetapi lebih fokus pada wadah aktivitas sosial yang mewakili setiap pendatang atau penonton. Termasuk didalamnya adalah aktivitas seni dan budaya, walaupun konsep ruang publik masih dapat dikatakan abstrak untuk mewakili setiap individu sosial. Akan tetapi dengan adanya ruang publik telah menciptakan ruang mediasi bagi segala macam bentuk komunikasi. Ruang mediasi ini dipandang penting, tidak saja dijadikan ranah promosi, lebih mendalam adalah untuk bertukar dan tempat komunikasi segala macam bentuk ideologi, kesenian, dan kebudayaan. Aktivitas seni semacam Jogja Fashion Week Carnival dan pagelaran pakaian cosplay pada ruang publik memberikan kesempatan bagi komunitas atau individu, untuk menjadikan aktivitas ini sebagai tontonan dan bagian seni publik. Seni publik ini tentu saja lebih cenderung lebih kreatif, bebas, dan terkadang tidak diiringi dengan perspektif teoretis, seperti yang dilakukan seni lainnya. Aktivitas seni pada ruang publik, merupakan bagian dari aktivitas sosial dan budaya, hakikatnya berdiri pada ideologi yang telah diatur untuk satu kepentingan, yang disebarluaskan menggunakan media massa dan iklan. Penonton atau masyarakat penikmat seni pada ruang publik, harus lebih cerdas dan kritis untuk menerima segala macam bentuk sajian aktivitas seni, sehingga sajian tersebut memiliki komunikasi yang seimbang.

scholarly journals Better medication management for Indigenous Australians: findings from the field

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Emden ◽  
Inge Kowanko ◽  
Charlotte de Crespigny ◽  
Helen Murray
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Medication Management ◽  
Aboriginal Health ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Drug Problems

This paper reports findings from interviews and focus groups conducted within a multi-dimensional action research project concerning medication management among Indigenous Australians. Participants were Aboriginal people with mental health problems, carers and family members, and health and social service workers from different regions in South Australia. A meta-analysis of findings from each regional project component was conducted, and major themes conceptualised and developed into a coherent summary. The findings revealed problems of a magnitude not previously realised - mental health problems (including alcohol and drug problems) and medication management among Aboriginal people clearly are major issues requiring immediate and sustained attention if the health and welfare of the Australian Indigenous population are to be improved. Findings concerned eight major areas: social and emotional wellbeing issues; stressors on Aboriginal health services and providers; training for the Aboriginal health workforce; mainstream health services for Aboriginal people; trust and confidentiality within Aboriginal health services; English language literacy and numeracy skills of Aboriginal clients; remote living arrangements for many Aboriginal people; problems with alcohol use; and institutionalised and individual racism in the community at large.

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