Educator Professional Development Workshop | Let's Not Make Aboriginal Art

Educator Professional Development Workshop | Let's Not Make Aboriginal Art

"Let’s NOT make Aboriginal art! When asked if I could come in and teach students how to make Aboriginal art, my answer - straight up - is: No! 

When the awkward silence runs its course, I’m sometimes forced to ask:

“Would you like to know why?“

My Bardi mob don’t make pretty dots, we’re a saltwater peoples so desert animal tracks aren’t really appropriate and those symbols you get as ‘education packages’ via Google, have nothing to do with how my mob share our stories!

In fact, those packs have very little to do with how most Aboriginal and Islander people share their stories today and perhaps, we should be talking about why!

Rather than reinforce in our young people an out of date and ill-informed notion of what others believed Aboriginal art to be then, let’s discuss what it actually is now and why it’s relevant to who we are, in our Australian landscape and society."
Ron Bradfield Jnr

 

You'll come away with:
Ideas for introducing Aboriginal Art to students
An understanding of the relationship between identity and mark-making
Insight into contemporary Aboriginal Art practice

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Ron Bradfield portrait
Ron Bradfield Jnr.

 

About the artist

Ron Bradfield Jnr is a saltwater man from Bardi Country, north of Broome but grew up in Geraldton, Western Australia! He now calls Whadjuk Boodjar (Perth) his home. As the CYO (Chief Yarning Officer) of Yarns R Us; Ron facilitates cultural conversations across all levels of our communities, helping Australians to revisit and explore their own personal stories - so as to better consider their own connections to this place - their home! Ron is also a storyteller and a maker of things; he has worked in and around the arts across remote, regional and metropolitan Western Australia for 15 years - often supporting the development of artists - as they explore the ways in which they can grow and share their creative practices.

On Saturday 27 August, the Gallery is open 10am-3pm only as we prepare for the AGWA Foundation Gala supporting women in the arts. Some exhibition access will be disrupted with two Tracks We Share ground floor galleries closed. AGWA Rooftop bar will be closed, reopening at 2pm Sunday. Details