"I started using computers when I was in high school 15 years ago. It was only a few years ago though that I acquired my own PC. While I enjoy the benefits of using a computer and having Internet access it opens up another sad story of contemporary Aboriginal life. The other day I did an Internet search on didjeridu and came up with 48 pages of web-sites. Being an Aboriginal person visiting didjeridu sites is an educational experience that can be painful. Some of the stuff I see is outright misappropriation of Aboriginal Culture. I've seen sites where people who have heard an Aboriginal story put their name on it, copyright it and claim it as if it was their own.
I came across another site of a fellow who had been to Australia with a digital camera and had taken some stills of our Rock Art. He's offering pictures for sale to people who want to paint their pvc and agave instruments with authentic Aboriginal designs. What people need to know is that this sort of behavior is stealing our designs. These stories and images are still owned by Aboriginal clans and individuals that are alive today. No one else has the right to reproduce them or copy them without permission.
At another site a non-Aboriginal artist is exhibiting a painting he did of Aboriginal Wandjina spirits. My cousin, Mark Atkins, and myself are painters. Mark Atkins (Yamitji) paints Wandjina spirits because he comes from an area where it's part of his birthright to paint them. Even though we're family, I don't paint Wandjina spirits because I'm not from that part of the country. I'm from the desert, I have my own images and stories to paint. So, I ask myself, why doesn't that fellow on the internet paint his own cultural images? This is a violation of our Intellectual and Cultural property rights and it's not ethical. If one of us blackfellas stole a design off a whitefella then offered it for sale we would have to answer for it in court and we'd probably end up in jail. As Aboriginal people we don't have equal recognition or protection under Western law. I'm speaking out about these things now because people need to be informed that disrespectful activities are happening on the Internet.
I've encountered exploitation and misrepresentation of Aboriginal culture in my travels through Europe as well. Let me give you some examples. There are a couple of Anglo-Australian entrepreneurs that tour on the European didjeridu circuit who are notorious. One is a self-appointed didjeridu healer who claims to teach Aboriginal healing songs in his workshops. He swears people to secrecy under some supposed threat of spiritual punishment by Aboriginal elders if they talk about what goes on in his seminars. The other fellow claims he has some sort of a blessing from an elder who has passed away to sanction his endeavors. These fellows claim to tell Aboriginal stories and talk about how they have great respect for Aboriginal people. It's all a load of crap... They only talk about our culture in romantic, stereotypical and self-serving ways as it relates to putting money in their hip-pockets. They've demonstrated that.
At one of our
European festival venues the Aboriginal performers received some
pretty shoddy treatment by festival organizers. When we finally
went public to talk about our concerns of how we were being treated
unfairly these spiritual gurus of the didjeridu remained silent
and unsupportive. They seemed to have no real interest in us as
individuals or in the struggles we face today as Aboriginal people
regarding self-determination and equality. They even went so
far as to tell other non-Aboriginal performers at the festival
not to get involved with us and to avoid "politics" and that
we were "trouble-makers".
It's not right, the hypocrisy and exploitation that takes place in the marketplace around the the didjeridu and Aboriginal Culture. Somebody ought to do
something about this... that's why I'm talking about
this now. It's time for things to change and we would like to
enlist the support of didjeridu communities around the world."
---Janawirri Yiparrka as told to Fred Tietjen---
Please explore the interviews, articles and links provided on this site to gain a greater understanding of the issues that Aboriginal artists are concerned with today.