Imaging nation

The continuity and resilience of indigenous art is expressed in the long suppressed influence it had on colonial imagery and the understanding of the Australian land, its use and history. Contemporary and historical indigenous practices are interpreted together particularly in light of the current political issues of agency in indigenous communities, and continuity in spatial and artistic practices. The way the taxonomy of animals, representation of country, and the iconography of the Australian nation, were influenced in colonial art by indigenous drawings is analyzed through never before published material. The archival and encyclopedic modes of nineteenth century research are used to access a cross-cultural context in which colonial settlement, scientific exploration, and the Aboriginal art market emerged. Presenting the maps, drawings, engravings, paintings, dances and rituals by indigenous artists between 1829 and 1901, such as Tommy McCrae, the indigenous understanding of space in this thesis proves Australian art and architecture developed before colonization. The fallacy that indigenous people did not have "art" is expressed in their conspicuous absence from art history. Countering the Modernist argument that the Primitive is a thing of the past that has all but died out, the precedents found in nineteenth century indigenous art are seen here to inform contemporary practices. Mimesis and appropriation, non-linear space and time, are posited as a vital contributions to contemporary discourses. This is a historical and epistemological study of how indigenous art in southeast Australia was made, performed, understood, classified and canonized.