Ethical art of being Bianca
IN HER ROLE WITH CAIRNS INDIGENOUS ART FAIR, BIANCA BARLING-SEDEN IS DEVOTED TO SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS’ CULTURES, WRITES DANAELLA WIVELL
CULTURE leads the way for Cairns Indigenous Art Fair’s new senior partnerships and communications manager Bianca Barling-Seden.
She has a varied background as a practising artist across Australia and SouthEast Asia, as a lecturer and tutor at several universities, and most recently as the engagement manager for the Torres Strait Island Regional Council.
Ms Barling-Seden’s family also has a deep cultural background.
Her husband Richard Seden and four-year-old son Malo are both of Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.
It was this cultural connection that Ms Barling-Seden said she wanted to bring to her new role with the country’s premiere indigenous arts fair.
“When you’re working with a culture, that’s not your own, how you navigate that cultural space is really important,” she said. “It’s something I’ve been passionate about refining as my career develops,” she said.
Ms Barling-Seden is “very new” to her role, stepping into the position covering communications, marketing, digital media and PR just over two
BIANCA’S FAMILY ALSO HAS A DEEP CULTURAL BACKGROUND, AS HER HUSBAND RICHARD SEDEN AND FOUR-YEAR-OLD SON MALO ARE BOTH OF TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER BACKGROUNDS.
weeks ago, but she already has big plans for CIAF’s direction.
“It’s our ninth year this year, next year’s the 10th anniversary, and we’re growing quite quickly, but we need more business partnerships to help us expand,” she said.
“That’s a really good opportunity for positive engagement from the business sector to really get behind empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by providing platforms for their creative expression and for economic opportunity.”
Ms Barling-Seden’s passion for learning about indigenous cultures at home and overseas is clear when she talks about her artistic background.
“After art school, where I did a masters of visual arts, I did some teaching and was a practising artist,” she said.
“Then I went to northern Thailand, Chiang Mai, and worked on the Thai-Myanmar border with a community arts organisation.
“I ended up in Arnhem Land for about 3½ years.
“We had our baby there, so he’s our little Arnhem boy.
“We ended up in the Torres Strait and Cairns.”
Her hope for the future of Australia’s indigenous cultures is clear: she wants to see preservation of culture, of land and of arts dating back thousands of years.
“Having worked overseas
and travelled a lot, the Torres Strait is probably one of the most pristine, beautiful parts of the world, so I felt enormously privileged to be able to be part of that,” she said.
“There’s a sad part as well, because up there you can see climate change happening right in front of you, and it’s something that is not as visible here, perhaps, apart from the Great Barrier Reef.
“It’s heartbreaking because I know some of those communities will be washed away and my son may not be able to take his children to some of those islands.”
AS A PLATFORM FOR ARTISTS, CIAF PROVIDES PROFESSIONAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES THAT IS UNIQUE TO QUEENSLAND AND AUSTRALIA BIANCA BARLING-SEDEN
Being able to spend time working in the Torres Strait and sharing culture with her young son will inform Ms Barling-Seden’s work with CIAF.
“I can see, as we rapidly grow, that we will need to bring people along, whether it be with philanthropic support, business partnerships, government funding, to be able to sustain this growth,” she said.
“CIAF is a leader in how it delivers an ethical marketplace on a grand scale – purely for the sale of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork from community-run art centres, alongside commercial art galleries.
“As a platform for artists, CIAF provides professional and economic development opportunities that is unique to Queensland and Australia.”
In the future, Ms BarlingSeden’s hope in her newest venture is to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists their own voices.
“After I finished my masters and worked with people from Myanmar, that really shifted my interest and passion to provide platform, working with creative people, artists and senior cultural people.
“Working in a way that’s empowering, and you’re leaving legacies in the form of succession planning and local people coming up into your job is essential to good, sustainable business practice.”