AIATSIS Foundation builds support for Indigenous culture

Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, AIATSIS Chairperson, Professor Mick Dodson AM, the Governor-General, His Excellency, General the Hon Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), Lady Cosgrove, AIATSIS Deputy Principal, Michelle Patterson, AIATSIS Foundation President, Rachel Perkins and AIATSIS Principal, Russell Taylor. Photo courtesy: Government House, Canberra.

BY MARK CODDINGTON

AWARD-winning filmmaker Rachel Perkins is calling on organisations and individuals across Australia to support a newly launched foundation in its quest to preserve Indigenous cultural heritage. 

Ms Perkins says the loss of songs, language and culture is a story that resonates in Indigenous communities across Australia. 

Speaking at the launch of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Studies (AIATSIS) Foundation on Thursday 14 May, she said there was an urgent need to identify, gather, safe-keep and share Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. 

“We need to take this very seriously, its time to be galvanised together in unity to act on a national scale,” Ms Perkins said. 

In launching the AIATSIS Foundation, Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove said AIATSIS had dedicated itself to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Indigenous Australians. 

“The collection it holds is by any measure, a national treasure. It’s linked to our past, and a connection and a pathway and a signpost to our future,” Sir Cosgrove said.  “It is a collection that tells us who all of us are, and it is a collection we need to fully appreciate and understand as the nation grows into its own future.” 

Education Minister Christopher Pyne named Ms Perkins as the inaugural AIATSIS Foundation President at the launch. 

An Arrente woman from Central Australia, raised in Canberra by Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins and his wife Eileen, Ms Perkins is a film and television director, producer and screenwriter known for films such as Radiance (1998), One Night The Moon (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2010), the TV movie Mabo (2012) and Black Panther Woman (2014). 
In her first speech as its President, Ms Perkins spoke about why she had committed herself to supporting the AIATSIS Foundation. 

“I have just finished a personal project, recording all that was left of Arrernte women’s dreaming stories in song in our country in Alice Springs,” Ms Perkins said.  “There are about 5000 Arrernte people and we realised there are only about 10 ladies who hold, in living memory, the dreaming stories in song. In our cultures, we use song to transmit this knowledge. 

"Although we recorded many of our songs, we also realised how many songs we had lost. This story is not unique, it is a story that resonates in Indigenous communities across much of Australia. This story is at the heart of my commitment to the Foundation, why it is so important to me.” 

Ms Perkins said AIATSIS had a strong record of repatriating songs and culture back to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

“With the Arrernte project, we also brought the ladies songs from the AIATSIS archive, songs that were recorded three decades before, and repatriated them to the community so they could listen to them and re-learn them,” she said.  “We are working to bring back what they see as valuable – what they want recorded and don’t want recorded. This repatriation process is not necessarily one that is happening on the national stage, but it is happening at a grassroots level.” 

Speaking to The Wire after the launch, Ms Perkins said the Indigenous people of Arnhem Land were fortunate in that much of their culture had remained intact. 

"It is a fact of social history that the east and south-east of Australia bore the brunt of colonisation, and the Indigenous peoples there faced a very different cultural situation than the people of Arnhem Land and Alice Springs,” Ms Perkins said. 

The loss of songs, language and culture is a story that resonates in Indigenous communities across Australia. 

“It is a testament to how precious their culture is, and how much they value their culture, that Aboriginal people down south are working very hard, with what they have, to preserve their culture, and to bring back their language to schools and revive their traditions. Our traditions are still very relevant to us.” 

Ms Perkins said there was a growing awareness and recognition in Australia of the intellectual and cultural property rights of its Indigenous peoples. 

“There is more understanding and more appreciation of culture – an appreciation that Australian Indigenous culture is unique, and an appreciation of the connection to country and to culture,” she said. 

But while there has been positive change over the years, the AIATSIS Foundation still has significant work to do. 

“We will raise funds to illuminate and repatriate the AIATSIS Collections, the world’s largest and most significant collection of Indigenous Australian culture and history,” Ms Perkins said.  

“It will be a Foundation for all Australians, and we need the help of corporations, universities, philanthropists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and as many supporters as possible.” 

To learn more about the AIATSIS Foundation visit aiatsis.gov.au.