IFACCA releases report on Indigenous Arts Policy

IFACCA,
23 May 2012, Australia

Information on the policy and funding programs administered by national arts funding agencies to support Indigenous arts practice is provided in the latest D’art Report released today by IFACCA, Research Report No. 22 Indigenous Arts Policy: Initiatives and Challenges.

Since the first World Summit on Arts and Culture in Canada in 2000, many IFACCA members have expressed interest in facilitating opportunities for networking between Indigenous arts policy experts to discuss policy, research and funding programs for supporting Indigenous arts practice. Discussions at IFACCA’s World Summits and regional meetings, and subsequent monitoring of issues by the IFACCA secretariat, suggest that government support for Indigenous arts practice is a common and significant area of interest.

Indigenous arts contacts
In March 2005 we were asked by Louise Profeit-LeBlanc from the Canada Council and Mark Stapleton from the Australia Council to assist in developing a database of organisations (operating nationally or internationally) that support Indigenous arts activity. From this starting point, we continued to collect contact information and news resources on the topic of Indigenous arts policy, which are provided on IFACCA’s Topic page www.ifacca.org/topic/indigenous-arts-policy/.

Indigenous Arts Policy: Initiatives and Challenges
Then in 2011, IFACCA conducted a survey to gather information about the policy and funding programs administered by national arts funding agencies to support Indigenous arts practice. An analysis of the information collected in the survey was presented in a Discussion Paper that was then discussed at the inaugural Indigenous Arts Policy Forum, co-hosted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council and IFACCA in October 2011 in Melbourne, Australia, in conjunction with the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture.

The author of the Discussion Paper, IFACCA's Research Manager, Annamari Laaksonen, has now supplemented it with information provided by Forum participants and other survey respondents to produce D’Art Research Report No. 22 Indigenous Arts Policy: Initiatives and Challenges. We thank the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for their financial support to present this Report.

We believe that this D'Art Report and the report on the Forum make a significant contribution towards developing a more comprehensive and informed framework for discussion and ongoing information exchange. We anticipate being able to hold a second Forum on Indigenous Arts Policy in the next two years.

As IFACCA continues to gather information on this area of arts policy, updates will be added to the Topic page www.ifacca.org/topic/indigenous-arts-policy/. We welcome comments and any further information on the topic.