Emerging Indigenous Performance. Where is Our Voice?

Bangarra Dance Theatre Company c. Marianna Day Massey 

In the 2009/10 financial year, the Australia Council for the Arts allocated $175.3m for grant and project funding to artists and arts organisations (Australia Council for the Arts Annual Report, Pg 4).  Of this amount, $9.7m was distributed to “build the excellence of Indigenous arts, along with access to them by Australian and international audiences” (Australia Council for the arts Annual Report, Pg 14). This is 5.5% of all available funding.  To put this into some perspective, in the same financial year Opera Australia received over $18.3m, which makes up 10.43% of all available funding. One organisation received almost double that of what all Indigenous arts in Australia received from the country’s major funding body.  As Marcus Westbury points out, “Opera Australia last year received more funding from the Australia Council than all the applicants for all 6 of the Australia Council’s major artform boards combined.” (Posted 28 September 2010)

I mention this not to claim that Opera Australia should not be receiving this funding, as all Australian art and culture investment is extremely worthwhile, but to demonstrate that both fields could be seen to have a specific audience and specific type of performer:  One a highly trained musician in a specific genre of music and the other a member of a specific community. Both also seem to be placed at diametrically opposite ends of the colonial spectrum.  One established and inherited from Europe and the other indigenous to this country.  Why does one organisation receive significantly more funding than that provided for artists within our Indigenous culture? If we look purely at the funding distributed between these two groups, I feel there is an indirect implication that one artform is seen to be more worthwhile, more superior, more relevant to our community and therefore more deserving of stronger funding.

Shining out like a giant red beacon of pride, one of the first images in the Australia Council for the Arts Annual Report boasts the claim, “Keeping Culture Strong – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts”. It is a significant picture within the chart; a major slice of the pie.  And yet, the financial figures do not reflect this commitment.  

The Australia Council for the Arts promotes a policy of support, ownership and growth of Indigenous arts.

“The Australia Council is committed to supporting and growing the arts of Indigenous Australia. We recognise the rights of Indigenous people to self-determination, which we demonstrate through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board.”

And yet of the 5.5% of funding received by the Indigenous community, one third was not distributed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board (ATSI Board).  Only two thirds were disseminated by the ATSI Board.  This seems to be a glaring contradiction to me. Only a percentage of funds is available for self-determined distribution by the very Board that was established in order to provide cultural understanding, ownership and self-determination.

“The Australia Council recognises the fundamental role of the board as its leading authority in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts, and it actively promotes the unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as integral to Australia's national identity.” 

The contradictions build...

As we emerge from the Howard era where artists spent a decade under the shadow of a Prime Minister who “displayed no interest in the arts” (David Throsby, Does Australia Need a Cultural Policy? Pg,  20), many have realised that emerging Indigenous artists face an exciting crossroads.  So what will emerging Indigenous artists do at these crossroads? With limited funding opportunities and the ATSI Board slightly shackled, how should emerging Indigenous artists progress?

Many colonised cultures have had similar experiences. As American First Nation Peoples fight for recognition and a place within American and Canadian Society, countries such as Hong Kong attempt to shake off the remnants of British colonisation and embrace a new future as a Chinese nation. The African American population have also been at many similar crossroads across the decades. I believe they embraced the opportunity some of these crossroads posed and made some extraordinary progress artistically; which assisted in providing a voice, an identity and a new way forward for all members of their oppressed community.

Jazz music derived from black culture in America. A confluence and fusion of European culture and African culture, this music gave black culture a voice, opportunity, respect and a place on the world stage artistically and socially.  So where is our Indigenous Australian jazz?  Where is our hip hop culture?  Minority groups in the depths of the Bronx in the late 60’s developed hip hop culture.  This culture embraced difference, rejected the mainstream, instigated change. It symbolised empowerment and created an identity that was reflective of their situation.  Most importantly hip hop gave minority cultures a voice.  A voice to express, disagree and communicate with other community members who were not otherwise listening.

Both of these artistic forms emerged from a community that was oppressed, restricted and ignored. More importantly for this post, neither of these artistic forms were funded by the Government but were instead born out of defiance for a Government who would not recognise them. Both artforms went on to receive world-wide recognition and acclaim.  Both Jazz and Hip Hop have been adopted globally as a diverse fusion of the old and the new, traditional and contemporary, colonial and post colonial, cultures merging with cultures.

The Australian Government has invested in assisting Indigenous cultures to retrieve traditional artistic practice, in order to conserve what was almost lost by their governmental predecessors.  However, if there is to be no significant funding for Indigenous artists is the only thing left for emerging Indigenous artists to continue to look back?  Or, is the way forward to look at models like Jazz and Hip Hop and to encourage the forging of a new Australian artistic fusion that is distinctly Indigenous. That gives our Indigenous artists a voice of their own that reflects today and hopes for tomorrow.  To not dismiss the past but to infuse the past with our current situation and vision for the future; to create a form of art that will launch onto the world stage as innovative, exciting and demands the world look at and listen to one of the most ancient cultures on earth.

Julian Meyrick writes that Australian Theatre is trapped in the past (Trapped by the Past. Why Our Theatre is Facing Paralysis. Currency Press).  I propose that this is an opportunity to support a way forward that is more exciting and has more positive social and economic implications than the rehashing The Marriage of Figaro at the Opera House, yet again.