Patrick Tan [HREF1], Webmaster, Faculty of Art & Design, [HREF2] , PO Box 197, Monash University, Caulfield East [HREF3], Victoria, 3145. Patrick.Tan@Artdes.monash.edu.au
Many indigenous populations around the world are facing strong challenges to their cultural identities. This project uses current web technologies to encourage information exchange and cooperation between the world’s Indigenous art and design communities, with the goals of preserving indigenous culture and promoting exchange.
INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network is a directory of organizations who practice, promote or support Indigenous art and design.
INDIGO has been developed by Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University in Melbourne. The project forms an integral part of a larger research project titled Victorian Indigenous Art in a Globalised Scene.
INDIGO is now operating as an on-line network for Aboriginal Art & Design groups across Australia including Indigenous Art Galleries and Museums. The next phase of the project is to expand the resource into a comprehensive international Indigenous art and design network. INDIGO will form a platform for International cultural exchange and will eventually include seminars, symposiums, exhibitions and conferences.
Many indigenous populations around the world are facing strong challenges to their cultural identities. There are some 350 million indigenous people in more than 70 countries around the globe, speaking autochthonous languages, and who are marginalized and frequently denied basic human rights, including their cultural rights.
How can we best preserve and promote the tangible and intangible heritage of indigenous populations, while at the same time encouraging their creativity and innovation.
Culture is a vital component of a people’s very humanity and identity. The arts, in turn, have been and will continue to be an immensely significant and invaluable component of the cultural capital of world. As an important part of culture, art has always been traditionally conceived, produced, used, distributed, and critiqued by people from their ethnocentric perspectives. Over the centuries, however, alternative perspectives – especially from a Eurocentric viewpoint - were introduced, used and perpetuated through the school system. As the cash economy assumed greater centrality in the lives of indigenous people, the arts were gradually sidelined into the peripheries.
INDIGO’s aim is to encourage and promote constructive exchange between the world’s indigenous communities. Our objective is to help to elevate the profile of indigenous visual culture by encouraging contemporary interpretation of traditional techniques and themes. INDIGO will promote Indigenous visual culture as a living culture.
Listing on the site is free, with a simple questionnaire providing us with the information to create a simple initial page. The listing can showcase up to six examples of work; features contact details and a brief description of the organization. It is envisaged that a content management system will be implemented allowing organizations to maintain and take ownership of their individual page.
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Teaero, T. (2002). The Role of Indigenous Art, Culture and Knowledge in the Art Education curricula at the primary school level [HREF4].
UNESCO (1999). Cultural Challenges of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples [HREF5]