Arts Law at Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 2019
This month Arts Law travelled to Darwin for the 13th Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF). On display this year, were the artworks of more than 70 different Indigenous Art Centres from all around Australia. Amongst all this incredible art, was an Arts Law stall, where we handed out information about artists’ legal rights and spoke with a number of interesting artists, art consumers, art centre workers, and tourists. Special thanks to Andrew Leslie who volunteered his time over the weekend.
Alongside our stall was that of the Indigenous Art Code, and another for the Fake Art Harms Culture campaign. This year, together with the Code, we asked people to send a postcard to the Prime Minister, asking him to change the law to make selling inauthentic Aboriginal ‘style’ art illegal. All up, over 700 postcards were completed and sent to Canberra!
It’s a great time of year for the arts in Darwin. August sees DAAF (including the DAAFF Fashion Show), the Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), the National Indigenous Music Awards, and the Darwin Festival.
It was great to be back at DAAF and see the incredible diversity of culture that exists across the continent.