Aboriginal Arts Leadership & Management Program Design Session

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2020

Abstract: Leadership in Australia is at a turning point. It is widely accepted that the intensity of the bushfire season during the summer of 2019-2020is driven by the changes in climate predicted some twelve years ago (Garnaut, 2008). Yet despite knowledge of the societal changes these will bring, attempts to mitigate the impact of climate change with developments in alternative economic and energy models have been stymied by political leaders. The resulting environmental damage suggests that the way in which we identify and promote our leaders has failed the ultimate challenge of our age. In the search for hope and a way forward, alternative leadership models capable of implementing positive change are needed. Under these circumstances, models that harmonise culture and the environment must be sought. Such innovative models of leadership characteristics and identities have been identified in the creative disciplines, particularly within Indigenous societies. As an art critic and writer over thirty years, my research has noted the leadership roles and respect that Australian Aboriginal artists frequently hold within their communities. I propose a starting point for potential disruption to leadership approaches and insights to alternative models. It is through the examining and reflecting on ways in which narrative and culture connect communities to create hope through identifying positive futures and “relatedness” that impactful, progressive leadership may be realised. Relatedness is required to remedy the failing leadership model in Australia. Indigenous methodologies such as Please Knock before You Enter (Martin, 2009) developed a research paradigm “founded on the principles of cultural respect and cultural safety and embedded in Aboriginal ontology, epistemology and axiology”. In Aboriginal communities, art provides a touchstone to the past and innovation toward the future. This paper examines characteristics that may serve mainstream society from the creative models available, particularly focussing on Aboriginal artists who are leaders in their community and cultural contributors at the same time. While there are conflicts visible between these divergent roles, their connectivity to the narratives of their place and people offer significant points of difference to the way in which we select and promote our current political leaders. There is little discussion of leadership models modelled by Aboriginal arts and culture in existing literature to date. In this paper I acknowledge the novel nature of the material under discussion. However, its potential ability to transform the way in which we manage both leadership and crucial environmental decisions at this juncture toward new leadership paradigms is the subject of the explorations below.

In this research brief, we describe a study conducted with a northern First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, to examine the role and value of the arts for community members. This interview-based project was a partnership between a local Indigenous researcher, university-based researchers, and two non-profit arts organizations. The results show that arts activities were seen as valuable for individuals and for the broader community, and that knowledge-sharing and support from artists inside and outside the community is crucial to support community members in their own artistic practices.

KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, 2021

This policy brief provides an overview of Indigenous knowledges for an arts organization on the Pacific West Coast in Canada. To orient readers, the brief is contextualized within the broader arc of the organizations' history of commitments to, departures from, and re-engagement with commitments to decolonization and decolonial practice. It provides a list of additional resources.

2022

This project focused on examining and developing culturally safe and supportive employment pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creative practitioners in design and commercial art sectors. The intention was also to build the capacity of First Nations creative practitioners to contribute to the governance, structures, and processes of cultural businesses and organisations, as we have previously seen through Indigenous run art centres (Cooper, Bahn, & Giles, 2012). First Nations engagement within community-based art spaces is well defined (see Acker & Woodhead, 2015; Throsby, 2010), yet there is little publicly available information or evidence of the benefits of increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation within design and commercial art sectors in Australia. Our intention was to understand the process and potential value of developing a First Nations led illustration agency, and associated governance and business structures in strategic partnership with The Jacky Winter Group and co-created alongside First Nations creative practitioners across Australia. Our aim was to develop this venture in an incremental and capacity-building way, in order to support First Nations creatives and their talents into something sustainable, and with longevity.