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They're Justified, and they're Ancient, KLF Featuring Tammy Wynette, Justified and Ancient, 1991 Aboriginal occupation of Australia has survived over a very long time, some say since the beginning of time. Other cultures acknowledge this and throughout the Asia-Pacific Region Aboriginal people are known, respected and still referred to as the Old People of the Pacific, even considered by some to be the common Ancestor of Asia. Accordingly, Aboriginal Artists are also sometimes referred to as the first Artists for their Ancient art forms. This story is older than Christ, older than Christianity, its older than the story of Lord Buddha - these are relatively new. This story is perhaps as old as 60, 000 years. Why do I know this? I know this because of the artwork that contemporary artists in their day created on rock formations my ancestors who painted. Christine Christophersen, Blue Print 2005 Do you think that Aboriginal Artists could be included in the recent new frontier exploration of “Asian” or “Pacific” exhibitions in their own country? Some notice, some don’t. Some ask why isn’t Aboriginal Visual Art properly represented in the new wave of exotic “Asia-Pacific” exhibitions, showcasing or collections? It’s not as if Aboriginal people and neighbouring groups haven’t shared an Ocean or had contact with each other that could provide the basis of an art dialogue… Borru’gura, Moana or the Pacific Ocean, the largest geographical feature on earth, is 11 million square miles of ocean dotted with islands that “way-finders” travelled between. Similarly, leaving the Pacific edge and travelling over Australia's 3 million square miles is like crossing an ocean of dry land… the world’s largest island, dotted with populations of various sizes and holding fossils from the dawn of life and remnants of a once vast inland sea. More recently, “Queensland” was actually built by those who belong in the Asia-Pacific region, not the recent arrivals, as they’d have us believe. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers sweated over the pastoral industry… until payment was an official concern of course. Then there was the human traffic wave from the South Pacific for Blackbirding in the Sugar Slave Industry and the growing Asian population of the time, deemed useful as Market-Gardeners, Restaurateurs and Pearlers galore. Despite the numbers of Asian, South Sea Islander and Pacific Islander populations in “Queensland”, it is interesting to note that there are no representative Art Societies from these groups. Are their issues, like ours, taboo subject matter for an Art Practice in Australia? Anyway, let it remain an unspoken mystery and paradox; the personal is often the political. For those of us who do celebrate creative energy, share dialogue and difference will see from the other APT, that the process seems quite simple… Despite the frustrations that come from non-believers, cultural gate-keepers, incompetent operators, unreliable hangers-on, and unethical obstructionists, we provide a snapshot, a sketching in, of what it means to be here now… and of course, before. Jenny Fraser 2006
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