The "V"oice fading quickly, page-404

Funny you should bring up the constructive weaving/art endeavours in the aboriginal communities, Bananas.

My mother in law has a Masters degree in art (she got it at the Darwin University in her 50’s) and used her qualifications to get a job in a aboriginal community near Alice Springs.

Her employment role was to be the interface between the local women and the Dealers who purchased their work, to encourage any of the “talent” who showed an interest in the marketing process and to keep all the artists supplied with the necessary equipment to produce their products.

She went there with high ideals as she’s always been a strong supporter of the aboriginal communities in all of the countries that she has lived in.

The community had a couple of well known painter’s whose work was highly valued by the Aboriginal Art Dealers and her forte is in the Painting medium (that’s why she got the job).

The reality at the coal face was that she found nobody in the community who was interested in learning how the process of selling/promoting their products.
She wasn’t overly upset, disappointed or surprised about the lack of interest shown by the community women in this part of the process.
What disappointed her was the lack of interest in the artists in creating paintings.

It took her a couple of months to realise that the only way she could get them to paint was to do everything needed to produce a painting other than to physically hold the brush.

She resigned in just under a year with her high ideals and love of the Australian Aboriginals in tatters.

As for the Tiwi Islanders, they are certainly different to the mainland Aboriginals.