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Indigo networks Australian Indigenous art and design

16 November 2005

Monash's Art and Design faculty is leading an ambitious national project to develop an Indigenous visual culture network.

Indigo network manager Ms Cathy Arena.

The Indigo project aims to create an extensive database of organisations supporting, developing and promoting Aboriginal art and design in Australia, with research initially focused on Victorian Aboriginal art.

A major part of the project is the development of an online network and website for Aboriginal art and design groups across Australia. The site will include a comprehensive list of museums and Indigenous art galleries. Membership to the network will be free.

Senior lecturer in visual communication Mr Russell Kennedy, lecturer in art and design theory Ms Julie Roberts and head of the Department of Theory of Art and Design Associate Professor Robert Nelson are leading the project, which is being funded by a Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements grant .

Ms Cathy Arena, who has been seconded from the Education faculty at the Peninsula campus, is facilitating the project. Ms Arena recently traced her birth parents and is rediscovering her Aboriginality through her involvement with Indigo.

"This is a project to reconnect with the community," she said. "Some of the places and organisations I have contacted in the Cairns region, for instance, know my birth family. Before working on this project I knew very little about Aboriginal art, and this is a great way to learn what is out there."

Ms Arena is sending questionnaires to more than 150 Indigenous artists and groups around Australia. The information will be used to compile an individual web page for each group.

One of the first groups to come on board is Merrima, an Indigenous design group that provides consultation and architectural design services for Indigenous and other communities.

Weavers, painters and those working with textiles, fashion and interior design are also being targeted.

Ms Arena said the website would be a useful resource for practitioners and people wanting to find out more about Aboriginal art and design.

Mr Kennedy said there were plans to expand the project into a comprehensive international Indigenous art and design network.

"The purpose of such a network will be to promote constructive exchange between indigenous cultures around the world," he said.

Other members of the research team include the chair of Monash's Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies and director of Monash Aboriginal Programs Professor Lynette Russell, head of the Gippsland Centre for Art and Design Ms Julie Adams, Switchback Gallery exhibition coordinator and lecturer in sculpture at the Gippsland centre Mr Mark McDean, and Ms Robyn Heckenberg, lecturer at the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at the Gippsland campus.

The Indigo website will be launched on 14 March next year at Monash's Gippsland campus. The launch will coincide with an exhibition at the Switchback Gallery on contemporary Indigenous weaving.