Cherbourg’s Art

The exclusion of Indigenous Australians from Australia’s national identity and symbolic entities, such as the Australian Constitution, can be identified in many works produced in Indigenous art practice. For example, illustrations of works by Cherbourg artists and other contemporary urban Indigenous artists allow the viewer an examination of continued Indigenous commitment to their own cultural values and belief systems, and therefore identity and Aboriginality. This chapter introduces the art that was created by the residents of Cherbourg. In doing so, from an historical, as well as personal, perspective. This art ranges across traditional styles of respective First Nations as well as being influenced by mainstream mediums and contemporary expression of styles, techniques, and mediums, including the genre of primitive or naïve art as is discussed within the context of art genres per say. Cherbourg art practice also highlights ceremonial art, historically passed down from generation to generation, not only in painting, but also includes pottery, as well as curio art in the making of artefacts which can be seen in the art that has subsequently emerged. Their art has particularly demonstrated their own stories of the effects of exclusion on their lives and experience which has been viewed, appreciated, and experienced by Australians and worldwide audiences.