Aboriginal Art: Creativity and Assimilation

Donna Leslie, an artist and art historian, explores Aboriginal art in relation to the effects of the policy of assimilation which prevailed in Australia from the 1930s to the 1970s. Her rigorous and sustained argument, supported by an impressive array of important visual images, reveals an extensive grasp of issues relating not only to the practice and history of art, but also in the fields of anthropology, ethnology and sociology. This book is a rare presentation of aspects of the history of Aboriginal art from an Aboriginal perspective, and provides fresh ways of understanding Aboriginal experience. While the author acknowledges the challenges of histories relating to assimilation processes associated with the former policy, her message is positive since it encourages a deepening empathy with Aboriginal art, cultures and peoples. This book is a reaffirmation of Aboriginal cultural heritage which addresses the development of Aboriginal art and the ways in which we might better come to know and understand it.