BRUCE:

I've worked with many of the artists and the art centres from the APY lands over decades now, and I had been made aware that they were working on a really ambitious project of major 3x3 metre paintings, and that they were looking to build a community project and would seek venues later for this major project.

DANIEL:

Bruce Johnson-McLean is a Wierdi person from Central Queensland. He’s an art curator. His role, to work with artists to bring their vision to a wider audience. It’s what he has done for most of his life.

In 2021, he was working at the national gallery as Assistant Director of Indigenous Engagement when he heard about this project coming out of the APY lands in the central Australian Desert.

It was called Ngura Pulka or “Epic Country”.

He was excited to see what they were making.

BRUCE:

I saw images quite early of the first, I believe it was, nine paintings that they produced and the artists of the APY Lands are really well known for bringing a real vibrance and a real colour to desert painting. So these are desert paintings based on or informed by Jukurrpa, dreaming stories. In recent years, the APY artists have brought very contemporary ideas into desert painting as well.

DANIEL:

Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to see some APY art in the flesh and up close and it's exactly as you described. You know, vivid, seeing all the colours in the desert that you don't know that are there until they point it out to you. You must have been tremendously excited at the prospect of exhibiting their work.

BRUCE:

Yeah I was really excited and when we started seeing the actual works, you know, I was blown away.

This is a really kind of ambitious group of artists. Many of them are, you know, really well known in Australia, but also internationally. But by the same sort of token, a lot of artists don't get recognised through a major exhibition until, you know, long after they're dead. So the artists really wanted to make this show to celebrate themselves and each other, you know, while they were still alive.

So they took the initiative of building this exhibition and, you know, it is quite unique in the way that they've gone about doing it. They've just taken it all on themselves and then have gone out and looked for partners in museums and galleries who might want to show that body of work.

DANIEL:

Bruce wanted to be that partner.

Ngura Pulka was one of the largest and most significant First Nations community-driven art projects to have ever been developed.

He jumped at the chance to work with them and bring their art to a massive audience at the National Gallery of Australia.

BRUCE:

So the exhibition itself was partially on the walls. It was probably 70% to 80% installed when the stories started coming out, and everything sort of stopped. A halt was put on the show.

Audio Excerpt - Sky News Reporter:

“This is the biggest scandal to rock the indigenous art world in years. Accusations of white hands interfering with Aboriginal art.”

[Theme Music Starts]

DANIEL:

In a front page story in The Weekend Australian was the headline: White Hands on Prized Black Paintings from the APY Lands.

It made claims that white studio staff were interfering with Indigenous artworks in a significant way and sparked a media campaign and a horror year for the collective.

From Schwartz Media, I’m Daniel James, this is 7am.

Today, curator Bruce Johnson-McLean and reporter Gabriella Coslovich, on the APY art scandal and the complicated question of authenticity in the Aboriginal art world.

It’s Friday, August 30.

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DANIEL:

Gabriella Coslovich, you've been looking into the whole saga around the Ngura Pulka show, and it really started with a video. Tell me more about what happened.

GABRIELLA:

Well, about two months before the Ngura Pulka exhibition was about to start, a video was leaked and stills from that video were published in The Weekend Australian alongside an extensive front page story with the damning headline ‘White Hands on Black Art’, claiming that white staff were interfering with the work of indigenous artists.

Audio Excerpt - Translator for Aboriginal Artists:

“And then she did what design that I put on my painting, and then she would come along, and then she would paint over it, and then start back again.”

GABRIELLA:

And at the centre of this story was this highly alarming video which showed two young white studio assistants busily working on and around a large canvas by First Nations artist Yaratji Young.

Audio Excerpt - Studio Assistant:

“Can I do this one up a little bit?”

Audio Excerpt - Yaratji Young:

[Speaks in Aboriginal language]

Audio Excerpt - Studio Assistant:

“Oh ok.”

Audio Excerpt - Yaratji Young:

[Yaratji Young speaks with another person]

Audio Excerpt - Studio Assistant:

“I want to clean, and then this one here…”

GABRIELLA:

And one of the young white women, the Art Centre Manager Rosie Palmer, is seen vigorously applying paint to the canvas in large circular shapes, or rock holes, and discussing the composition of the work. For example, asking ‘could it do with another rock hole there? Or is that going to be too circular?’

Audio Excerpt - Art Centre Manager Rosie Palmer:

“Could it do with another rock hole there, or is that going to be too circular?”

Audio Excerpt - Yaratji Young:

[Responding in Aboriginal language]

Audio Excerpt - Art Centre Manager Rosie Palmer:

“The space is probably good.”

Audio Excerpt - Studio Assistant:

“Yeah.”

GABRIELLA:

The artist is also there, you can see her out of frame. Nonetheless, this video seemed to be irrefutable proof that white studio assistants were overstepping their role.

We later learned that a private art dealer and rival of the APY Art Centre Collective had paid an indigenous man $1,000 for that video. So it cast doubt on the success of this collective and, and the integrity of this collective.

This story became more or less a campaign against the collective, and more than 75 stories followed. So it was, really it became the art scandal of 2023.

Audio Excerpt - Sky News Presenter:

“Five indigenous artists and six former studio employees have alleged that there had been white interference…”

Audio Excerpt - Sky News Reporter:

“…allegations of, quote, ‘white hands on black art’.”

Audio Excerpt - Sky News' Andrew Bolt:

“The allegations, which are denied, is that white studio staff had literally helped paint some of the works themselves to actually make them more appealing to white buyers…”

DANIEL:

That's a crazy amount of focus for any newspaper to give a story, let alone an art story. What was the content of these stories? And tell me a bit more about the narratives that emerged from those stories.

GABRIELLA:

Yes, it was extraordinary and inordinate. The focus essentially was just bedding down these serious allegations that were being made about the APY Art Centre Collective that went beyond the video and that alleged that white staff routinely were painting substantial parts of indigenous artists' work. Not just at Tjala Arts, which is where that video was taken, but also at the Adelaide headquarters of the APY Art Centre Collective.

There were also claims of mismanagement by the APY Arts Centre Collective and coercive control of indigenous artists. Then there were stories about how these revelations had decimated the indigenous art market and they set off a chain reaction of investigations into the APY Art Centre Collective.

BRUCE:

You've got to keep in mind that to just forge ahead with the exhibition while all of these stories are happening means that these stories would have been the story of the exhibition, not the story of those works, not the stories that the artists are wanting to tell.

So, the decisions were made to essentially halt the exhibition until some more clarity could be gained. And then the calls for inquiries and things began and the exhibition essentially lost its place within the schedule and was then sort of postponed indefinitely, or at least until clarity around all of these inquiries and different reviews had been finished.

DANIEL:

After the break, the investigations and what they meant for the APY Art Centre Collective.

[Advertisement]

DANIEL:

Bruce, a lot of people watched the video that was published by The Australian and were shocked. What did you think when you saw it?

BRUCE:

People have their own ideas about what they think about Aboriginal art and how it should be done, but I would certainly label myself as a progressive in this space. You know, I want Aboriginal to see Aboriginal culture and art progress and move and, and evolve. And I want Aboriginal people to have all of the means that non-Aboriginal people have in this space as well.

So, you know, I am very aware that white artists and even urban based Aboriginal artists have studio assistants that do quite a bit of this sort of work for them. So the fact that desert artists are engaging in contemporary studio practice for me is not a shock at all. And I find it quite exciting, the idea that desert artists are wanting to use all of the opportunities that are available to them to progress their painting.

DANIEL:

Right, because the claims are that this was interference in the making of this art. So how would you describe the way these artists were using white assistants?

BRUCE:

There hasn't been a lot of direct involvement by, I think, white studio assistants in a lot of the works. There's some preparatory work, there's edging work, there's a bit of touching up of spilled things or untidy things. But this was probably one of the first instances where, white studio assistants were directly assisting the artist. And it sounds really interesting when you say it like that because these are people who are employed to assist in the studio to assist these artists. So, if not assisting them, what are they doing there? That didn't bother me at all, but it shocked and outraged a lot of people in the industry.

But, at the same time it was really ignoring the artists. And, you know, my conversations with the artists, with the managers of art centres, there was a real sense of frustration that nobody was listening to them through it.

DANIEL:

Gabriella, you said the series of stories and what the claims made in them led to a number of investigations. So what exactly unfolded?

GABRIELLA:

Within a week of The Australian's first story, in April last year the National Gallery of Australia launched an independent investigation into the collective and this was headed by two prominent lawyers whose team delivered a 34 page report last August and found that the indigenous artists, without exception, had said that the paintings had been produced by them.

Audio Excerpt - ABC Reporter:

“The review has strongly rejected allegations that artists had engaged in cover ups or dishonest practice, saying ‘those claims had no proper foundation’.”

GABRIELLA:

But, the following month in May last year, the South Australian government announced its own review into the management of the APY Collective in partnership with the Northern Territory and federal governments.

Audio Excerpt - Sky News Reporter:

“The South Australia and Territory governments have combined forces with the Commonwealth to launch an investigation into allegations of white people interfering with Indigenous art at the APY Art Centre Collective.”

GABRIELLA:

There were also claims investigating claims that the collective was not supporting a culturally safe, respectful and appropriate workplace for artists working on the APY lands, in the art centres there, and also in the Adelaide studio.

But this South Australian Government appointed panel came back with no findings. And curiously, the panel did not deliver a written report. It did, however, refer the matter to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and to The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.

And after looking at all of that material, the ACCC came to its findings that no breaches of consumer law had been committed.

DANIEL:

So as we sit here there haven't been any findings of wrongdoing against the collective.

GABRIELLA:

No. That's absolutely right, Daniel. After more than a year, and after intensive investigations and scrutiny of this organisation, nothing has come back.

DANIEL:

So can you tell us what the swathe of investigations, what kind of impact they've had for the APY Collective?

GABRIELLA:

Just before I go into that, I want to quote one of the APY lands artists, Sally Scales, who said last year that ‘the APY Collective was the most scrutinised arts organisation in the country’, and it certainly did start to feel like that.

It's been a terrible time for the Collective and the whole saga wasn't great for the indigenous art industry because, in a sense, the whole industry was under a cloud and art collectors were ringing up the art centres on the APY lands and, you know, wanting documentation to prove that the works were authentic and so forth. The organisation lost its state and federal funding. Its corporate sponsors pulled out.

Sky O'Meara, the general manager of the APY Art Collective told me, you know, ‘they were good, intelligent, talented women with integrity and an amazing work ethic and they were almost destroyed by these untrue stories.’

The collective has managed to stay open, though. Through the income of sales, Sky O’Meara mentioned that sales increased last year by $300,000 and she’s still hopeful that the Ngura Pulka exhibition will go ahead some day as planned at the National Gallery of Australia, and that the paintings will be bought by the gallery as had also been planned.

DANIEL:

Gabriela, thank you so much for your time.

GABRIELLA:

Thanks.

DANIEL:

Bruce, you left the gallery after the exhibition was put on ice. Did this saga have any role to play in your leaving?

BRUCE:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, seeing this exhibition developed by community, seeing this incredible celebration of who they are, of their stories, of their art, and of themselves and each other. Seeing that, not only postponed by the gallery, but played politic with so big in the media.

And it was a real gut wrenching feeling to, not only see that happen, but to have to talk to artists about why that's happening. You know, that's all the opposite of the things that I've dedicated my life to. To celebrating Aboriginal culture; to sharing it; to sharing the joy of Aboriginal art and life. That was kind of ripped away through a lot of that process. So absolutely that has some bearing on departing the gallery.

DANIEL:

What will happen to the APY exhibition now, Bruce?

BRUCE:

Well, the Ngura Pulka exhibition has always been owned by the community, by the artists. As I understand, they are talking to a few international partners about showing the exhibition in international museums.

And one of the really exciting things that's happening through that is that, you know, there are curators in spaces in places like the US who are really engaged with things like critical race theory, but also have experience of Murdoch media as well. So they are really keen to examine some of the pieces of this exhibition and of the coverage of this whole saga through, I think, a really mature lens. So I think that's quite exciting that not only the art will be celebrated, but there will be a level of critical discourse around desert artists engaging in contemporary studio practice. Around the intervention of the media into indigenous art, and art centres and indigenous owned businesses, and an opportunity for community to present their story through these spaces.

And I think perhaps if it is shown in Australia, and I'm sure it will be shown in Australia at some point, a lot of the conversation will centre around the media furore rather than the artworks. So I hope that there's an opportunity for some balance between those things, but also for a really mature critical discussion around what's happening and what has happened.

DANIEL:

Well, it might be the case of being one of those things that we don't know what we've got until it's gone. Bruce, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it.

BRUCE:

You're very welcome.

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DANIEL:

Also in the news today,

Protesters have displayed portraits of a 23 year-old asylum seeker who died on Wednesday after setting himself on fire outside the Department of Home Affairs office in Melbourne.

Mano Yogalingam had been part of an active protest urging the Labor government to give permanent visas to asylum seekers stuck in limbo since arriving on boat.

Mano himself had spent more than 11 years in Australia on temporary bridging visas.

And, Senator Jacqui Lambie says she will no longer run state candidates in Tasmanian politics.

The announcement comes after two state MPs were kicked out of her namesake party, the Jacqui Lambie Network, and will now continue on as independents.

7am is a daily show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper.

It’s produced by Cheyne Anderson, Zoltan Fecso, and Zaya Altangerel.

Our technical producer is Atticus Bastow.

We are edited by Chris Dengate and Sarah McVeigh.

Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Our mixer is Travis Evans.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

7am is hosted by Ruby Jones, and myself, Daniel James, see you next week.

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