Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It really is my pleasure to speak to the Report on the impact of inauthentic art and craft in the style of First Nations peoples. I was on this committee. I joined the inquiry when it was partway through its work. I thank all of the committee for their involvement and those that travelled far and wide across the various Indigenous art centres and Indigenous art fairs in this nation to take the parliament to places around the country and meet with people who wouldn't normally get to speak with their elected representatives on such an important matter to the artists concerned.

I particularly want to thank the chair, Ann Sudmalis, the member for Gilmore, who concluded this report, along with the deputy chair, Warren Snowdon, the member for Lingiari, my colleague Sharon Claydon, the member for Newcastle, and all the other MPs who participated actively in this inquiry. I'd also like to thank the secretariat for their great work—it was a challenging inquiry, going around the country, as it did, to many remote areas—and also the Hansard operators, who really did have some challenges on their hands in various parts of the country. It was hot work at times for the Hansard operators, under some interesting conditions. I thank you all for your support of the committee and the work that it carried out.

It was a remarkable experience to be part of this inquiry. The statements of the people we got to meet and hear from were very moving. Hearing what their art and cultural expression mean to them was very enlightening. I was only elected just over two years ago, but it's a remarkable experience as a parliamentarian to go and meet people in their own lands and hear about things that matter most to them. In this case, it was about the dignity of their art and how they are seeing it become terribly undignified by the proliferation of fake, cheap imitations of the expression of a culture that is 65,000 years old.

Anyone who knows the souvenir stalls that are on many main streets around certain parts of the country knows that some are trying to do the right thing and get authentic art on the shelves for tourists, but there are other areas where it feels like an insurmountable task to try to address it. And these are in very popular tourist destinations such as Cairns, Darwin and Fremantle and in airports all around the country. The abundance of imitation art, which really harms the culture of First Nations people, has to be seen to be believed. As parliamentarians, we all pass through airports and see this work. I now have my eyes open to just how prolific it is and the fact that something needs to happen to stem its tide.

I totally agree with the chair, the member for Gilmore, when she says in the foreword to this report:

This unacceptable misappropriation of First Nations cultures cannot be allowed to continue unchecked. These imitation products exist solely to make money. They demean the rich and ancient history of Australia's Indigenous peoples. These items have a profound and harmful effect on First Nations peoples. They do not teach or inform the buyer about Indigenous heritage as they have no connection to it. Beyond the immediate consequences mentioned above, this situation has a negative impact on Australia's image abroad.

I'd like to reflect on our image abroad in respect to Indigenous art. It was a matter that came up in the inquiry. In fact, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade put in a submission and appeared before the inquiry. In their submission they highlighted that First Nations cultures need to be recognised as a part of Australia's collective identity and nationhood. They also stated in their submission:

Australian Indigenous art is unique, world-recognised and one of our greatest public diplomacy resources.

This is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the high regard that it holds First Nations art in.

In their submission, Regional Arts Australia put forward this statement:

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art industry is an important Australian industry. It is unique in the world. It is acclaimed throughout the world. It enhances Australia's national identity and national reputation. It is a source of belief and pride for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It provides substantial economic benefit for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

How damaging therefore, to our nation, to the regions and to the artists on which this unique industry is founded, that there are ongoing and unresolved allegations about fake art, misleading and deceptive conduct and market manipulation.

Now, some people might not be aware, or might take for granted, how significant Indigenous Australian artworks are around the world. Many people in this place and lots of Australians have been to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. If they go to one of the higher levels, they're able to look down and see the roof of the Musee du Quai Branly. On the rooftop there is a work of Lena Nyadbi of the Kija people. Her painting Dayiwul Lirlmim shows the barramundi scales reimagined on the roof of this very important museum in the heart of Paris. On the banks of the River Seine the world sees the dreaming of Dayiwulcountry in the vast Kimberley. This is a remarkable thing to happen in this world, where a woman from the Kimberley can produce art that is reproduced in the heart of Paris for all of the world to see. This is how Australian First Nations art is seen around the world.

One of the world's most famous artists, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, has been compared with Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Jackson Pollock. She was born in 1910 in the desert area north-east of Alice Springs, the area we know as Utopia. In her obituary that was published in London's Independentin 1996, it was said that Emily:

… carried aboriginal art beyond the limited sphere of ethnographic curiosity into the broad stream of contemporary culture.

These examples—and there are many more; some more contemporary than Emily—contribute to the arts and culture of this world and to a greater understanding of our humanity. It being the oldest culture on the face of the work, we cannot underestimate the importance of First Nations art and its cultural expression to global heritage. It deserves and needs the protection that we as parliamentarians can provide. To protect and preserve First Nations art—the art and cultural expression that sustains the people who create it—is a great advantage to our nation as a whole.

For those who didn't see the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition at the National Museum last year, it captured the Dreaming of our Indigenous sisters and brothers, a Dreaming that came into being in their history and their minds long before the Greek civilisation was even considered. We need to think about time differently when we think of our First Nations community and the art that they produce, because they were producing art long before the ancient civilisations that we seem to sometimes have a much higher regard for. If we can protect the treasures of ancient Greek society, we should probably think more about how we can protect the treasures of our First Nations society right here in Australia.

There are a couple of recommendations in the report and a couple of things to highlight. Properly funding the Indigenous Art Code is very important. There's only one full-time staff member trying to do everything to protect a pretty remarkable body of art around the country, and we need to think about how that can be bolstered further.

The prospect or the idea of a national Indigenous arts and culture authority is one I hope we will get to explore further in the next parliament. It is probably too late for this one but, whatever the next parliament is made up of, I hope the government of the day considers this. Recommendation 8 of the report suggested there is—and I highly support this—a need to have a look at how our intellectual property system can create new laws to protect what is a unique area of cultural expression and art in this world and not try to contain the protection of First Nations Indigenous art within the existing copyright system. New intellectual property laws would be a great endeavour. It would be a great endeavour to protect what is a great endeavour itself: First Nations art. It is not beyond our wit. We have seen many other nations seek to protect their treasured things, like Champagne in France, of course. I don't think it is beyond the wit of Australians to protect the great cultural heritage of our First Nations peoples.

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