Making in translation: the intercultural broker in indigenous Australian art

This thesis examines the role of intercultural brokerage in the production and mediation of indigenous contemporary art in Australia. It aims to illuminate something of the broader movement by way of third party brokers – in most cases non-Aboriginal – who have acted between the art world on the one hand, and on the other the local contexts within which remotely-based Aboriginal artists work. These figures are varied, but include curators and – more prominently – art coordinators (a key position within remote community Aboriginal art centres). In the literature on indigenous contemporary art in Australia, sustained examination of such intermediaries remains largely absent, regardless of the often-central role they have played. This thesis intends to undertake initial steps towards addressing this oversight through a review of a number of critical and historical precedents and through three sustained contemporary case studies that draw upon interviews with key brokers. In doing so, it asks a central question: How might we model, and thus articulate, the role of third party brokerage within the broader network of authorial agencies that surround indigenous contemporary art in Australia?