APY scandal: White collaboration in black art ‘must be explicitly stated’

The manager of an Aboriginal art centre in Alice Springs says the level of white collaboration in black art needs to be explicitly stated.

Indigenous artist Yaritji Young. Picture: Rhett Hammerton

The manager of an Aboriginal art centre in Alice Springs says the level of white collaboration in black art needs to be explicitly stated, with entry guidelines for the country’s most significant Indigenous art award allowing publicly unstated non-Indigenous collaboration.

The artist at the centre of the “white hands on black art” scandal, Yaritji Young, is one of 63 finalists for the Telstra NATSIAA awards just a month after The Australian published a video of the white manager of outback studio Tjala Arts seemingly painting big, bold circles on to her canvas.

An investigation revealed five Indigenous artists who worked for the APY Art Collective, which includes Tjala Arts, and six former white gallery assistants claimed white staff regularly interfered with Indigenous artworks.

NATSIAA entry guidelines allow artworks with “non-­Indigenous collaborators” into the award.

The criteria were updated in 2021 as part of an annual review process, according to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, which hosts the awards.

The updated guidelines include “The final artwork will only be attributed to collaborators who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander”.

Cecilia Alfonso from the Yuendumu Art Centre.

The manager of Warlukur­langu Artists in Yuendumu, Cecilia Alfonso, said she was ­ “extremely disturbed and confused” by the Telstra NATSIAA entry criteria, which allow non-Indigenous collaboration.

The MAGNT insists “each artist from Tjala Arts has confirmed their entered artwork is a solo entry and not a collaboration”.

This includes Young, and others such as Frank Young, Iluwanti Ken and Naomi Kantjuriny.

The Australian is not suggesting Young has acted inappropriately here.

MAGNT director Adam Worrall said while the NATSIAA entry guideline stating “artworks with non-Indigenous collaborators can be entered” has been in place since 2022, the next part of the sentence, “as long as the principal artistic vision and creative output are the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists” has “always” been a part of the ­eligibility criteria. He said criteria about “collaborators” in general had been present for more than two decades.

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory director Adam Worrall. Picture: Amanda Parkinson

Mr Worrall said the artists signed an agreement naming all collaborators and the gallery worked with the selected artists to understand how they had defined their collaboration.

Judges have access to all this information.

Ms Alfonso said “the level of collaboration needs to be clearly stated in the presentation and display of the work”.

“I would think Indigenous art awards are for Indigenous artists. In the 22 years I had the choice to enter (artists), I would never have entered a collaborative work.”

In a letter to Mr Worrall, MAGNT board chair Clare Martin and Northern Territory Arts Minister Chansey Paech, Ms Alfonso wrote: “I find the changes in the participation guidelines for this exhibition, which now make non-Indigenous participation and collaborations in the artwork acceptable, extremely disturbing”.

She told The Australian she was astonished and disappointed Young’s work had been included in the awards before any probes into white interference at the APY Arts Centre Collective had been completed.

“Why are all major art institutions around Australia banding together to normalise this behaviour?” she asked.

“I can’t un-see the video.”