Push to keep Namatjira’s art permanently in family hands through copyright reform

The lawyers who helped win back Albert Namatjira’s lost copyright have called for legal reform that would give the painter’s family permanent control over his legacy.

Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.

The lawyers who helped win back Albert Namatjira’s lost copyright for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a historic 2017 deal have called for sweeping legal reform that would give the revered painter’s family permanent control over his legacy.

In a submission to the Productivity Commission, prominent Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler said the Copyright Act “unfairly impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists’’, who often live in impoverished communities with little education about copyright law.

The submission urged that the act’s 70-year limit on copyright protection after an artist’s death be extended for such artists and their descendants, starting with Namatjira, whose family was ­“denied ownership or control” of the pioneering painter’s copyright for more than three decades.

Albert Namatjira in 1954.

The law firm said: “The case of Albert Namatjira is one example of how the limitation on the period of copyright protection can operate unfairly.’’

“The wrongful” 1983 sale of Namatjira’s copyright by Northern Territory authorities had ­denied the artist’s family control of Albert’s works for “nearly half of the statutory duration of the copyright. This occurred despite the express wish contained in Albert Namatjira’s will for his assets (including the Namatjira copyright) to be passed to his wife and children.’’

Widely recognised as the founder of the Aboriginal art movement, Namatjira died in 1959, meaning that copyright on his works is due to expire in 2029. However, his family had no say over reproductions of his famous paintings in books, posters, exhibition catalogues and news and film footage for 34 years after the Territory Government sold it to the small, white-owned company ­Legend Press in 1983, without the family’s knowledge.

During that time, the impoverished Namatjira family did not earn a cent from reproductions of his work. Legend Press, meanwhile, was accused of stifling the artist’s reputation by taking a ­restrictive approach to the copyright. The company denied that ­ allegation, yet the National Gallery of Australia said it was unable to reproduce Namatjira’s paintings in any form between 2009 and 2017 due to copyright difficulties.

Mount Hermannsburg by Albert Namatjira. Photo: Supplied

The lawyers’ submission said Legend Press’s conduct “had the tragic effect of obstructing public awareness of Albert Namatjira’s works among current and future generations of Australians’’.

The 2017 copyright handback was reported around the world. Yet the submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into deficiencies in the Indigenous art and crafts market, warned that in 2029, “the Namatjira copyright will enter the public domain” and “one of Australia’s most valuable cultural assets would be open to reproduction by any person”, ­including “disrespectful use of this valuable artwork”.

As part of their pro bono work, Arnold Bloch Leibler brokered a landmark compensation deal between the Territory Government and Namatjira’s descendants in 2018. Today, Namatjira’s copyright is controlled by the non-profit Namatjira Legacy Trust, which looks after the interests of the painter’s descendants, most of whom live in Alice Springs and surrounding desert communities.

In their submission, the lawyers said: “We also believe that, in the longer term, this reform should ­extend to the works of other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists’’ who have been disadvantaged by the 70-year copyright limit.