Artists in the Black – a Success Story Speech for Arts Law Centre of Australia
“Artists in the Black – a Success Story”
Speech for Arts Law Centre of Australia
6 July 2005
The Hon Justice George Palmer
Supreme Court of New South Wales
As President of the Arts Law Centre of Australia it gives me great pleasure to be able to tell you something about an important project developed by ALCA and its success over the past twelve months.
I am sure you would all agree that indigenous art now occupies a central place in the cultural identity of this country. Who has not, by now, absorbed into his or her own artistic experience and vocabulary the unique vision of Aboriginal art, the unique and vibrant gesture of Aboriginal dance, the unique and evocative sound of Aboriginal music? This unimaginably rich indigenous culture is now a major and seminal part of Australian culture; its artists in every medium are truly and in every sense Australian artists.
But indigenous artists suffer from a special disadvantage. In western and other cultural traditions, art is regarded as the creation and property of the artist. It is bought and sold in a market like any other commodity. However, in traditional Aboriginal culture, artistic expression is a natural and essential part of the life of the whole community; an artist draws upon the common property of the spiritual life and tradition of the community and, in artistic creation, adds to that common property.
Far too often, because of unfamiliarity with the concept of art as a merchantable commodity and because of lack of knowledge and means to protect themselves, indigenous artists and their communities have suffered financially and their artistic sensibilities and moral rights have been trampled on.
The Arts Law Centre of Australia, as part of its mission to provide legal and business assistance to all Australian artists, has developed a special programme to assist indigenous artists and their communities to manage successfully their encounters with the art marketplace.
At the end of 2003 ALCA received funding from the Australia Council to develop a service for indigenous artists; it has come to be called “Artists in the Black”. The programme aims to increase access for indigenous artists to advice and information about their legal rights on all arts-related matters. The project was launched on 28 June 2004. May I tell you something about the successes achieved in the last twelve months.
Arts Law has employed Aboriginal staff for the project, a lawyer, Samantha Joseph, and an information/liaison officer, Blanch Lake. The object of the service is to:
provide direct legal advice to indigenous artists and organisations,
provide limited case work services in matters which meet a public interest test,
provide information and education about Arts Law issues to ensure that indigenous artists and their communities are informed about their legal rights.
A Reference Group has been established, drawn from the indigenous community, to provide support and guidance throughout the course of the project. The current members of the group are:
Robynne Quiggin New South Wales, Chair
John Harding Victoria
Carol Innes Western Australia
Kevin Dolman Western Australia
Irene Watson South Australia
Karen Mills Northern Territory
Senator Aden Ridgeway (NSW) was a member of the Reference Group until he had to resign on 1 July 2005.
The Reference Group has already provided valuable advice and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the project.
Although Artists in the Black was launched only twelve months ago, over 150 legal advices, face-to-face consultations and case work services have already been provided. Arts Law’s indigenous staff, in addition, have full access to the two hundred volunteer lawyers that Arts Law already has in place around Australia. Given the need for ongoing case work services in some matters, we have also been able to put in place pro bono lawyers willing to provide an extended service. We are most grateful to the following firms for their support:
Freehills
Gilbert + Tobin
Allens Arthur Robinson
Baker & McKenzie
Michael Frankel & Co
Ebsworth & Ebsworth
The project has worked with the Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages to develop template contracts for use in indigenous language projects. These contracts have innovative clauses which enable indigenous communities to exert great control over their intellectual property and over the way in which people work with their communities. The project will examine the need for development of further template agreements, particularly in relation to indigenous culture and intellectual property.
The indigenous solicitor identifies client matters requiring ongoing case work. These cases have a public interest component that will benefit the indigenous community more broadly, particularly in furthering recognition of intellectual property issues. To date, case work has been carried out in eight matters.
Arts Law has developed eight information sheets for indigenous artists. They concern copyright, moral rights, indigenous culture and intellectual property, licensing, contracts, business structures, governance and certificates of authenticity. Today we are launching comic-book style versions of four of the information sheets. Geoff Mulherin of the Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales will in a moment tell you more about the comics and will officially launch them. Arts Law is extremely grateful to the Law & Justice Foundation and the Copyright Agency Ltd for their financial support of the Artists in the Black project and for the development of these educational resources.
In 2004 the project delivered an education programme to indigenous artists and their organisations across Australia. The sessions were held in sixteen locations and over eight hundred participants attended. Artists in the Black workshops took place in Melbourne, Townsville, Perth, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, six towns and communities in the Pilbara, Darwin and Alice Springs and South Australia. Our indigenous staff worked with local organisations to ensure that the sessions were appropriately targeted and promoted. We acknowledge gratefully the funding support of the Copyright Agency Limited which has made this educational programme possible.
Despite being fully engaged on the programme, Artists in the Black staff have also provided advice to indigenous organisations and government on the issues of Commonwealth funding agreements for indigenous organisations, proposed legislation on indigenous communal moral rights, better recognition of indigenous cultural and intellectual property under Australia law, and resale rights.
Before concluding, I must express deep gratitude to those who have made this project possible and who have assisted in making it a success in its first year of operation: to Freehills for generously hosting this celebration of the first anniversary of the project and the launch of the information comics, to the Copyright Agency Limited for funding support of the education programme, to the Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales for a grant enabling the creation of the information sheets and the comics, and to the Australia Council for the Arts for funding the Artists in the Black service.
Every time Arts Law staff engaged in this project make a presentation or hold an education seminar in the indigenous communities around Australia they are overwhelmed by the response and by requests from Aboriginal people to visit their community with further assistance as soon as possible. A great deal has been done in the Artists in the Black project over the last twelve months and has been done well. Much more, however, needs to be done. The need is great, the work is important, and the assistance given is very much appreciated by the artists and their communities. The project deserves our continuing and wholehearted support.
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