Aboriginality in Art Genre and Pedagogy

Australia’s Constitution and the Act legislated for Aboriginal lives rounded up from their traditional lands and moved to welfare compounds. The recollections of these times and the fundamental impact on the lives of those who lived in Cherbourg illustrate an honesty of people and culture which can be better appreciated. The exploration of Aboriginality and Belongingness enables an understanding of Indigenous perspectives of Aboriginal identity as evidenced, practised, and experienced within traditional and contemporary frameworks of art and education within Australia. This concept of Aboriginality can be understood as an epistemology of Belongingness within the spiritual and cultural domains of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal societies’ Dreaming. It is fundamentally about the diversity and differences of Aboriginality, rather than superiority and ignorance of cultural practices that is important here. As the veils of ignorance, prejudice and inferiority are stripped away, that is when the complexity of Aboriginal civilisation, and the depth of their heritage and civic contribution, can be truly appreciated and acknowledged as one diverse perspective and accepted by the broader Australian community. Aboriginality as a genre has drawn on an Indigenous pedagogy of Belongingness through the concept of curatorial ‘storylines’ and in the use of less traditional forms of art.