A Question Of Identity

How white is our art, truly? Unsurprisingly, there was no succinct answer to the subject matter of Thursday's A Question of Identity discussion. What is clear is that we're working in a society that often demands a diminutive categorisation of cultural and linguistically diverse artists based on their ethnicity. Canberra reduces this categorisation to an A4 sheet of paper, while commercial programmers are much more straightforward – they just want to see darker-skinned indigenous people wearing grass skirts. So, in this context is it odd that many people are still surprised to hear that a famous Indigenous musician plays country guitar and not didgeridoo?

The topic can provide no easy conclusions, but for me the panel discussion failed to properly interrogate one key question – is our multicultural society reflected in the art we make and the people producing it, and does it matter? We were caught in a surface discussion on bureaucracy, markets and categorisation and the panellists were rarely urged to challenge much of what the audience surely would have known already. More of a philosophical discussion on what we should be aiming for – and why – would have provided a more satisfying experience. However, the three panellists were intelligent, charismatic and thoughtful arts facilitators and it was an absolute pleasure to sit and hear them talk about their experiences.