Week 6: Christine Nicholls and the issue of Copyright

As I was writing my reflective paper on the Tjanpi Desert Weaver artworks in the Heartland Exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, I emphasised the point that it was disappointing to not be able to learn the whole narratives that the sculptures were perhaps meaning to convey. It is interesting that in an article I am reading by Christine Nicholls, she has emphasised that Dreaming narratives ("lengthy narratives relating to Aboriginal Creator Beings and their activities during the foundational 

time known in poor English translation as ‘The Dreaming'") are owned, and therefore subject to the intellectual copyright of specific individuals and groups. Not everyone has the right to transmit these stories orally, or illustrate the stories without explicit permission. Apparently, there are public and private versions of Dreaming narratives, the private versions requiring permission to be sought and obtained to retell from appropriate adults, usually old or very old Aboriginal storytellers. In abbreviated public versions of the narratives, information is "coded" to screen and protect secret and sacred knowledge.

I still think that it is extremely difficult to come to a full appreciation and understanding of Aboriginal culture without being included in their belief systems, although on the other hand how many of us have actually sought permission to learn the stories? Why should we be allowed to learn them if we never attempt to actively engage ourselves in Aboriginal culture? It is a very different cultural concept to have sacred stories which only a few can know, as though this might have been an aspect of say Christianity hundreds of years ago, the progression of society and technology has led Anglo-European culture to a point where few secrets can be kept. I cannot think of any Euro-centric cultural aspects which cannot be shared by any other culture, although this by no means requires that other cultures should conform to this rule. It is just that we don't hold many things sacred anymore. Perhaps it isn't as simple as being handed the information we want to know about Aboriginal culture - instead, we need to search and learn for ourselves and remember that respect for different cultures is a right, not a privilege.

[Source: C Nicholls, "Understanding And Judging Children’s Artworks By ‘The Standards Of A Diferent Procedure’: Space, Cognition And The Visual Art Of 21st Century Warlpiri And Kukatja School Children", International Art in Early Childhood Research, Volume 3, Number 1, 2012, p. 39]