Selling Yarns

Australian Indigenous textiles and good business in the 21st century

 

Speakers

Jon Altman: Biography

Director, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University

Jon Altman has a background in anthropology and economics and is the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. He has a long-standing interest in Indigenous art and in 1989 chaired the federal government review of the Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Industry that provided the blueprint for the current NACISS program.

In 2003, Professor Altman assisted the Northern Territory Government with the development of its Indigenous Arts Strategy. Since 1979, he has worked closely with Maningrida Arts and Culture (MAC) and Kuninjku artists in the Maningra region; in 1999 he developed the Maningrida Arts and Culture Business Development Plan and in 2004 assisted in the organisation of the Kuninjku retrospective 'Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art' at the Art Gallery of NSW. He is currently co-curating (with Apolline Kohen from MAC) a retrospective 'From Mumeka to Milmilngkan: Innovation in Kurulk Bark Painting' that will open at the Drill Hall Gallery, ANU in November 2006.

See also: Abstract of Jon Altman's paper:
It's all art, but still we have a fibre problem: Economic reality, contested value, and Indigenous Art