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Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Jonathan Jones, Untitled (gidyirriga) 2018 (detail), ceramic figurines, sponge-stamped synthetic polymer paint, wood, stereo, soundscape, dimensions variable, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Sound design: Luke Mynott, Sonar Sound; Voices Karma Dechen, Renna Dechen, Beth Delan, Jenson Howard, Lilia Howard, Taj Lovett, Mincarlie Lovett, Phoebe Smith, Ben Woolstencroft and Mae Woolstencroft from Parkes Public School; with thanks to Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM, Uncle Geoff Anderson and Lionel Lovett. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
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This ACCA Art File focuses on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and practices. The resource is designed as an adaptable toolkit for teachers to use selectively in devising their own units of classroom learning with extractable sections for direct distribution to students.

Through the art and practices of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, this ACCA Art File focuses upon some of the ways that artists have explored three key concepts: the strength and continuity of Indigenous cultures, the inalienability of connection to Country, and the important place of family and kinship within Indigenous communities and society.

The six artists included have been selected from the recent ACCA exhibitions, A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness (2018) and Sovereignty (2016-17). The practice of each artist is examined in relation to one of the three key ideas, and further elaborated through analysis of a key artwork. This ACCA Art File will help students to broaden their understanding of the diversity and richness of contemporary art practice amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

  1. Introduction
  2. Key Themes
    1. Continuity of Culture
    2. Connection to Country
    3. Kinship and Family
  3. Support Material
CATSIA Key Idea 1
Continuity of Culture
Key Idea 1
 CATSIA Key Idea 2
Connection to Country
Key Idea 2
 CATSIA Key Idea 3
Kinship & Family
Key Idea 3

For Teachers

Primary activities

Ancestral Tribute Drawing

Yhonnie Scarce connects to her ancestors through old photographs. She looks for clues about their personalities and then makes artwork ‘gifts’ based on what she thinks they would have liked.

Examine a photograph of one of your ancestors for clues about them – what objects are there? What are they wearing? Where is the photograph taken? (If you can’t get a picture, ask your adult to tell you about an ancestor instead). Based on your observations draw a picture for your ancestor that includes objects, places, activities, or people you imagine they would have liked.

Extension: On the back of your picture write a creative short story about your ancestor.

Australian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Years F-6

Exploring ideas and improvising ways to express ideas

(ACAVAM106, ACAVAM110, ACAVAM114)

Responding to and interpreting artworks

(ACAVAR109, ACAVAR113, ACAVAR117)

Victorian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Levels F-6

Explore and express ideas

(VCAVAE017, VCAVAE025, VCAVAE029)

Respond and interpret

(VCAVAR020, VCAVAR028, VCAVAR032)

Curriculum Interpretation

This activity is inspired by Yhonnie Scarce’s use of family photographs in her artwork Remember royalty (series). This activity is intended to help students to understand how an artist has used their ancestral heritage and historical documentation as inspiration and material for the creation a contemporary artwork.

 

By undertaking this activity, students:

  • explore how historical documents and images can be used to generate inspiration for artwork
  • observe how others’ experiences of family and ancestry are inspiration for their art
  • exercise close looking and observation of found images as the basis for imaginative and creative responses
  • transform their observations and ideas into visual forms and symbolic imagery
  • use expressive and imaginative vocabulary to translate their visual expression into a narrative writing (*extension activity)

Secondary activities

Nature Documentary Sculpture

Lisa Waup connects to her Indigenous heritage by incorporating objects found on her Country into sculptural artworks.

Choose a place to which you feel you belong – home or school, for instance. Take a walk around outside and assemble a collection of objects from what you find on the ground. Look carefully for eye-catching forms and traces of life – feathers, snail shells, cicada shells, leaves, flowers, or twigs. Then transform your collection into a sculpture using string, glue or wire. Like a documentary your sculpture will communicate both about the unique environment of the place you chose and your connection to that place.

Australian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Years 7-10

Exploring ideas and improvising ways to express ideas

(ACAVAM118, ACAVAM125)

Victorian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Levels 7-10

Explore and express ideas

(VCAVAE034, VCAVAE040)

Curriculum Interpretation

This activity is intended to get students thinking meaningfully about the unique nature and importance of Indigenous peoples’ connection to Country. By exploring their own relationship to a place significant to them, this activity is intended to enhance understanding and empathy for Indigenous peoples’ connection to Country, and how that connection can be a powerful inspiration for artworks.

 

By undertaking this activity, students:

  • independently explore their personal connection to a place of their choosing
  • analyse how found objects can be recontextualised to become symbolically meaningful materials within artworks
  • understand and follow a plan for creating an artwork from conceptual framework to studio production
  • understand the practice and processes of a contemporary artist and its unique outcomes

Terms of Use

This education resource has been produced by ACCA Education to provide information and classroom support material for educators. The reproduction and communication of this resource is permitted for educational purposes only.

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