LibGuides: Art & Design: Indigenous resources in ANU Library collections on Art & Design

ANU Graduate Attribute - Insight into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges and Indigenous peoples’ perspectives (IP-GA)

Development of this content supports the ANU Graduate Attribute - Insight into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges and Indigenous peoples’ perspectives (IP-GA). Content that explicitly explores Indigenous ways of knowing relevant to the discipline.

Indigenous resources in ANU LIbrary Collections on Art & Design can be explored from the boxes below.

Indigenous Art & Design

Search the ANU Catalogue and SuperSearch with the following search terms to find books and articles and other resources on Indigenous topics in ANU Library Collections on Art and Design by using the suggested searches below.

art AND (aborig* OR "australian aborig*" OR "aboriginal australian" OR "first nations" OR "australian indigenous" OR "indigenous australia*" OR indigenous OR "first nations" OR "torres strait" OR "torres strait islander")

A select list of books and ebooks is in the box below and click here for the full search results for books and e-books and for journal articles on the topic.

Rattling Spears by Ian McLean
Call Number: 704.039915 MCL
ISBN: 9781780236230
Publication Date: 2016
Large, bold, and colorful, indigenous Australian art--sometimes known as Aboriginal art--has made an indelible impression on the contemporary art scene. But it is controversial, dividing the artists, purveyors, and collectors from those who smell a scam. Whether the artists are victims or victors, there is no denying the impact of their work in the media, on art collectors and the art world at large, and on our global imagination.
65,000 years : a short history of Australian art by Marcia Langton (Editor)
Call Number: 704.039915 SIX 2024
ISBN: 9781760764210
Publication Date: 2024
A landmark publication on the history of Indigenous Australian art - this courageous and comprehensive exploration calls us to bear witness to 65,000 years of continuous culture, Indigenous knowledge and powerful art.
Painting the Land Story by Luke Taylor (Editor); National Museum of Australia Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: 704.039915 PAI
ISBN: 0642565449
Publication Date: 1999
For many Indigenous Australians, the act of painting is a kind of personal religious communion between the artist and the ancestral creation beings that made the country. In Painting the Land Story, Luke Taylor, Howard Morphy, Kim Akerman, Ute Eickelkamp, Brenda Croft and Mary Bani variously explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from traditional and contemporary perspectives. Their essays look at art as an expression of community identity, interrogate the context of traditional and contemporary environments in which art is created and reveal the sense of ancestral and cultural precedent, which continues to inform and inspire all forms of artistic expression.
Indigenous Archives by Darren Jorgensen (Editor); Ian McLean (Editor)
Call Number: 704.039915 IND
ISBN: 9781742589220
Publication Date: 2017
In recording and ordering documents considered important, the archive is a source of power. It takes control of the past, deciding which voices will be heard and which won't, how they will be heard and for what purpose. Indigenous communities understood the power of the archive well before the European Enlightenment arrived and began recording information about the people they colonized. For these Indigenous people, colonialism has been a struggle over archives as much as anything else. The eighteen essays by twenty authors, seven of whom are Indigenous, investigate different aspects of this struggle in Australia, from Indigenous uses of traditional archives and the development of new ones to the deconstruction and appropriation of European archives by contemporary artists as acts of cultural empowerment.
Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia's Top End by Joanna Barrkman
Call Number: 746.0994 ABO 2020
ISBN: 9780998044507
Publication Date: 2021
Traces the development and contributions of Aboriginal-owned art centers to contemporary art and expression Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia's Top End presents the work of contemporary Australian textile artists working at five Aboriginal-owned art centers in the Northern Territory: Tiwi Design, Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, Injalak Arts and Crafts Aboriginal Corporation, Bábbarra Women's Centre, and Merrepen Arts, Culture and Language. This book traces the history of textile screen printing at these art centers, from its beginnings in the late 1960s to its recent emergence as a vibrant contemporary art form for Aboriginal expression.
Aboriginal Art, Identity and Appropriation by Elizabeth Burns Coleman
Call Number: View online
ISBN: 9781351961318
Publication Date: 2017
The belief held by Aboriginal people that their art is ultimately related to their identity, and to the continued existence of their culture, has made the protection of indigenous peoples' art a pressing matter in many postcolonial countries. The issue has prompted calls for stronger copyright legislation to protect Aboriginal art. Although this claim is not particular to Australian Aboriginal people, the Australian experience clearly illustrates this debate. In this work, Elizabeth Burns Coleman analyses art from an Australian Aboriginal community to interpret Aboriginal claims about the relationship between their art, identity and culture, and how the art should be protected in law.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art by Gretchen M. Stolte
Call Number: View online
ISBN: 9781000185553
Publication Date: 2020
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art explores the effects of Queensland government policies on urban First Nation artists. Gretchen Stolte uses rich ethnographic detail to illuminate how both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists understand and express their heritage.