The upcoming exhibition, "65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art," at Melbourne University celebrates Indigenous Australian art's historical significance and its struggle for recognition as fine art. Co-curated by Judith Ryan, the exhibit highlights that Indigenous art, which predates European settlement, was marginalized until the 1980s. Ryan emphasizes the outrage over the delayed acceptance of Indigenous art into prominent galleries and its ties to broader issues of human rights, reflecting on the cultural and historical connection between disenfranchisement and artistic recognition.
The failure to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual culture as art is closely tied to the fact that the original inhabitants of Australia were not counted in the census until 1967.
These two instances of racist disrespect are very closely interconnected, highlighting the long struggle for recognition of Indigenous art alongside the fight for basic human rights.
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