SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
MR. E. G. WHITLAM
AT THE OPENING OF A NATIONAL SEMINAR ON ABORIGINAL ARTS AUSTRALIAN
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
21 MAY 1973
ABORIGINAL ARTS
There could be no more appropriate meeting place for this
seminar than the Coombs Lecture Theatre of this university. I do not
need to tell you of the dedicated and untiring service Dr. Coombs has
given to both the arts and the Aboriginal people of this country.
This seminar brings together two o~ f the great causes to which he has
devoted much of his distinguished career as an Australian public
servant. I pay tribute to his energy, his zeal and his humanity.
There can be no qualification about my Government's
commitment to the cause of the Aboriginal people. We are determined
that the long record of injustice, repression, neglect, the record
that has marked our treatment of the Aboriginal people for two
centuries of white civilisation on this continent, will be brought
to an end. Let there be no mistaking our sincerity. Above ally let
there be no mistaking our motives. Our commitment to the Aboriginal
people is no token gesture to modish theories, no easy device to
improve the " image" of white Australia overseas, no comfortable sop
to world opinion. We regard the Aboriginals' rights and dignity as
more important than the white mants reputation. I repeat what I said
in my policy speech last Nov-ember: " The Aborigines are a responsibility
we cannot escape, cannot share, cannot shuffle off." In 1967 the
Australian people, by an overw~ 1elming majority at a referendum,
gave the national Government an overriding responsibility for the
welfare of the Aboriginal people. Nothing was done to implement
that responsibility in any way that would not have been possible
before that referendum was passed. We will accept that responsibility;
we regard it as a sacred trust.
The Labor Government has many plans and many ambitions for
the Australian people. But if there is one ambition-we place above all
others, if there is one achievement for which I hope we will be remembered,
if there is one cause for which I hope future historians will salute
us, it is this: That the Government I lead removed a stain from our
national honour and gave justice and equality to the Aboriginal people.
My Government intends to restore to the Aboriginal people
of Australia the power to make their own decisions about their way of
life within the Australian community. We know that most Aboriginal
Australians are proud of their heritage, of their long history and
of the traditions and culture which have been handed down to them.
We know that most of them, in all parts of Australia, want to preserve
their identity as distinctive groups within an Australian society which
respe-cts and honours that identity.
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Accordingly we see this seminar as an important expression
of the Government's intention. It has been arranged by the newlyestablished
Board for Aboriginal Arts within the Australian Council
for the Arts. This Board is composed exclusively of Aborigines and
is presided over by your chairman, Mr. Dick Roughsey. That board has
decided who was to be invited to participate in the seminar. That board
will determine the conduct of the seminarts proceedings. I am glad to
see that the majority of those present are themselves Aborigines and
that those who are not, are men and women of goodwill whose knowledge
and experience will be of value in your deliberations0 Important among
these are distinguished repres-entatives of ethnic groups from New
Zealand, the United State-s and Africa, to whom I extend a special welcome.
We expect that the work of the seminar will guide the Aboriginal.
Arts Board in tbe policies it will develop. My Government intends that
the Board will receive greatly increased financial resources so that it
can do its work effectively.
The Board will be concerned to support and stimulate the
traditional arts of the Aboriginal people. Gradually, white Australians
have become aware of the richness'-and diversity of these arts of the
bark paintings, the rock carvings and paintings, of the mimey the dancing
and the music of the dramatic presentation of traditional myths and
stories, of the great song cycles which celebrate the -adventures of
totemic ancestors in the dream-time. What has tended to be forgotten
is that these examples of the cultural heritage of the Aboriginal
people have their source in, and derive their inspiration from, the
deeply spiritual ceremonial which is of the essence of the Aboriginal
way. I hope your seminar will explore this relationship so that the
Boardts support may be given in ways which respect and enrich the
ceremonial foundations as well as the works of the artists which spring
from it. It has been fashionable to regard Aboriginal arts as a
rigidly unchanging repetition of forms laid down in times immemorial.
I believe this is a mistake. There is ample evidence of the influence
of change in subject matter, in materials, in style and purpose0
Truly it is an ordered change within a stable but developing tradition.
I do not think we should regard Aboriginal arts as a museum piece, but
rather as a vigorous, expression of the vitality of the Aboriginal way,
changing as it will from the effects of outside influences and from its
own internal vitality. Authenticity depends upon the arts still being
rooted in2 and enlivened by, the true spirit of the Aborigipal people
rather than by adherence to unchanging forms.
There are many Aboriginal Australians whose links with the
traditions of their ancestors have been broken or become tenuous. Many
live in tow ns and cities, facing the problems of isolation, of prejudice,
and a multitude of social and economic handicaps. For them, the arts
will take much from white society, and from other racial groups in style
and technique. They will be seen in part as a means whereby urban
Aborigines are frequently an expression of protest and that they learn
much from protest in s'imilar forms from minorities the world over. Such
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social protest is a proper purpose of the arts and I hope that the
Aboriginal Arts Board will strengthen the capacity of urban communities
to make their voices heard. Artists are not only those who see and
feel most intensely the agonies, the sorrows and the hopes of their own
people: They are those who can bring to others the willingness and
capacity to comprehend and share these emotions. I have been struck
by the distinctively Aboriginal style which is emerging in the writing,
the theatre, the visual arts of urban Aboriginal artists. I hope this
style will be brought to full flower in the coming years.
Mr. Roughsey, you and your fellows here in this seminar have
before you an exciting task and as historic opportunity. I wish Syou
well in your deliberations. I pledge the support of the Australian
Government for the plans which I am sure will emerge from them.
I have much pleasure in declaring open this National Seminar
on Aboriginal Arts. 0 0 0 @ e.. aee a