Australian First Nations Art and Culture

Australian First Nations’ arts and cultural practices and cosmological beliefs span 60,000+ years, with Australian First Nations' Peoples standing firm in the belief that they have been here since deep time associated with Australian First Nations' Ancestral Beings, creation stories and cosmologies. This course explores the diversity of pre-contact, post-contact Australian First Nations' arts and cultural manifestations, from customary to contemporary representations, incorporating diverse media and trans-disciplinary platforms. The course in Australian First Nations’ visual arts and culture has three main aims: * Provide students with b asic geographical, historical and contextual frameworks for the study of Australian First Nations’ visual arts and culture in mainland Australia, Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islands. * Familiarise students with concepts that are fundamental to Australian First Nations’ understandings of the interconnected relationships between art, culture and life , both historically (pre- and early post-contact, up to the early 20th century) and in a contemporary (early 20th - present-day) context. * Assist students in developing ideas about how contemporary Australian First Peoples’ visual arts and cultures contribute to cross-cultural critical theory, representation and identity, and trans-disciplinary practice and research. Wherever possible collections and exhibitions at national arts, cultural, social history and archival institutions are used as part of the teaching and learning experience.