Aboriginal culture hits Germany, piques global interest

With a rich history dating back tens of thousands of years, indigenous Australians represent just about 3 per cent of the nation’s population. But their small population has not stopped Aboriginal filmmakers, painters, singers and dancers, from making their mark on the contemporary cultural map with foreign audiences in recent years in Germany and elsewhere. This year, performances by the Bangarra contemporary Aboriginal Dance Theatre as well as an art exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia’s indigenous collection have been highlights of an AustralianGerman cultural programme, ‘Australia now’.

“Our artists are operating at a level that we don’t really understand because we are still writing their history,” says the collection’s curator Franchesca Cubillo, herself from an Australian Aboriginal family.

The exhibition, which opened this month in Berlin, showcased Australian theatre, photography, sport, science and technology.

The show at Berlin’s Me Collectors Room gallery represents the first time that these 100 odd artworks from the Canberra-based National Gallery’s vast collection of over 8,000 Aboriginal objects have been shown in Europe.

It includes works from the 19th century through to pieces by contemporary urban artists documenting their search for a modern identity.

The exhibition includes European-inspired landscapes by the renowned Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira dating back to the 1930s through to Tony Albert’s 2008 ‘ Ash on me’, expressing his indignation at the abuse of indigenous symbols in the souvenir business.

Tasmanian-born artist Julie Gough also tackles the brutal colonial past of her island state with a work about the so-called stolen generation when Aboriginal children were removed from their communities to be brought up by white Australian families.

The Berlin exhibition comes after several Aborigines have successfully raised the profile of indigenous Australia in the wider world.

After rising to the top of the world of TV talent shows in Australia,17year-old Aboriginal soul singer Isaiah Firebrace represented his country in the May Eurovision Song Contest with his song ‘Don’t Come Easy’ finishing ninth in the competition’s final.

In September, Aboriginal filmmaker Warwick Thornton won the Venice Film Festival’s special jury prize in September for his film ‘Sweet Country’.

Many of the 60 artists, whose works are in display in the Berlin exhibition, have never been to art school or learnt art theory.

“Instead,” said Cubillo, “they were taught by family and drew on their ancestors.”