At the Crossroads of Tradition and Change

IN 1966, AS AUSTRALIA LAUNCHED ITS INDIGENOUS-INSPIRED ONE DOLLAR NOTE, FEW PAUSED TO QUESTION THE ARTWORKS’ ORIGINS.

The note was meant to honour Aboriginal culture but beneath the surface is a tale of cultural appropriation, lost recognition, and artistic reinvention.

It was a pivotal moment in Australian history where Western and Indigenous art collided, exposing deep-seated divisions and sparking a movement that would forever change Aboriginal art.

For much of the twentieth century, Aboriginal art was viewed as primitive and insignificant in comparison to European art in Australia. Bark paintings, boomerangs, and didgeridoos were popular souvenirs, but the artwork itself was not considered important or worthy of being described as art. Artists of any standing practised and copied techniques of the European masters and were celebrated for this style.

Artists such as Norman Lindsay, one of Australia’s most prolific and accomplished artists, were revered for their elaborate depictions of Australian life, landscapes and allegorical figures but rarely, if ever, featured depictions of Aboriginal people or their art styles unless in a cartoon or degrading way.

In the early 1930s, artists such as Margaret Preston saw the need to develop an Australian identity in art and began experimenting with Indigenous styles. She was one of the first non-Indigenous Australian artists to use Aboriginal elements in her work.

Over the next twenty years, other non-Indigenous artists embraced Aboriginal styles.

The painter, Elizabeth Durack, began experimenting with Aboriginal shapes, motifs, and colour pallets to great success, possibly due to authentic Aboriginal artwork not being commercialised and difficult to obtain outside of the Northern Territory. She even took her authentic style one step further and painted some works on bark.

Durack was familiar with an Aboriginal view of the world and depicted tribal scenes in her hybrid Indigenous style. Her work in the 1950s and 60s was a unification of two worlds. She purportedly ‘channelled’ an Aboriginal man to help produce a series of paintings of her later works in an attempt to retain a sense of authenticity.

Other artists followed, including James Cant, an Australian painter and art teacher. Cant’s work often incorporated Aboriginal elements and spirits in modernist and surrealist works.