Cirrus@Austlit

'I expect that most readers of Humanities Australia will be familiar with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Map of Indigenous Australia (fig. 1). Some, particularly the Academy’s anthropologists, will be acquainted with it professionally. But most, I suspect, will have come across it in one or another of the more general contexts in which it has been circulated. These include museums. It forms a part of the visitor’s orientation to the First Australians: Gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders at the National Museum of Australia, and, since it was first made available in 1996, has performed a similar function in relation to exhibitions of the cultures of Indigenous Australians at many Australian museums.' (Introduction)

'This paper examines the similarities and differences between the cultural tastes and practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians as evidenced by the relationships between the main sample and an Indigenous sample recruited by a 2015 national survey. It does so in order to identify the respects in which Indigenous tastes are distinctive in relation to (i) cultural practices with an Indigenous reference, (ii) cultural practices with an Australian, but non-Indigenous reference and (iii) cultural practices with international associations. These questions are explored initially at an aggregate level and then more closely by probing those instances where significant differences in Indigenous/non-Indigenous cultural tastes and practices are registered across the six cultural fields encompassed by the survey: sport, television, heritage, music, literature and the visual arts. In the light of current debates regarding the politics of ‘Indigenous enumeration’ and the tendency to present Indigenous difference in the form of a deficit, we look instead at the positive significance of the specific Indigenous tastes that our findings identify. We also examine the effects of gender and level of education in differentiating Indigenous cultural tastes and practices and explore how these are related to emerging class differences among Indigenous Australians.'  (Publication abstract)

'Culture in Australia, published in 2001, offers an incisive and up-to-date examination of the forces that are reshaping Australian cultural priorities, policies and practices at the start of the twenty-first century. Drawing on the work of some of Australia's leading cultural analysts, its concerns range broadly across the cultural sector encompassing art and heritage institutions, publishing, broadcasting, tourism, museums, the music industry, film and youth cultures. These are placed in the context of the major national and international forces that are redrawing the cultural landscape in contemporary Australia. Engagingly and accessibly written, Culture in Australia offers a challenging introduction to current debates and dialogues focused on the need to imagine new culture futures for an increasingly diverse and mobile people.' (Publication summary)