Allegations of Widespread Exploitation of Aboriginal Artists have surfaced

THEY'RE the "carpetbaggers", commercial gallery owners, backyard dealers and private agents who swoop into Aboriginal communities and snap up indigenous art at a fraction of its value, reselling the work in galleries, on the internet and eBay at inflated prices. Artists are working and living in fenced-off blocks of land around Alice Springs where they have no guaranteed entry or exit. Sarah Brown, a health worker in Alice Springs, says dialysis patients will often miss appointments because they are locked inside the bush blocks.

Ms Brown says "carpet-bagging" or the unregulated art trade is prolific in central Australia. "That's the reality of the situation. I'm sure they'll say it's for safety and security or whatever but the reality is that people can't get in and out, people are in there to paint," she said. Ms Brown says there are about 30 places in Alice Springs engaged in the unregulated Aboriginal art industry and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

A Senate inquiry report into Australia's indigenous visual arts and craft sector yesterday recommended increased funding for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor the industry and to conduct educational programs for the community on buying indigenous art ethically to cut out the carpetbagger, who often takes advantage of Aboriginal poverty in remote settlements.

The report of the inquiry, chaired by West Australian Liberal senator Alan Eggleston, also recommended that an indigenous art industry code of conduct be established as soon as possible. The committee recommended the indigenous arts industry be given two years to self-regulate or face a prescribed code of conduct under the Trade Practices Act. It also recommended a new $25 million infrastructure fund be established to assist indigenous visual arts and craft, and that a new arts centre be built in Alice Springs, given the particular problems facing indigenous artists there. As an example of a common occurrence, the inquiry heard of one dealer who paid an Aboriginal artist $150 for a work that took a week to paint and was probably worth 10 times as much. When confronted, the dealer justified his actions by saying the Aboriginal artist would have otherwise had no income at all. In a separate case, Anthony Oliver, chief executive of Western Australia's Jirrawun Arts, told the inquiry of another artist's plight: "He might just need that extra $1000 because of a family funeral … Suddenly there is a funeral: 'I need two grand.' So what happens? The unscrupulous carpetbagger will say, 'You poor fella — that Jirrawun is not looking after you, is he? You come, I'll give you $2000', getting a $12,000 painting or a $30,000 painting."

The inquiry report also recommends revised legislation be introduced to strengthen indigenous communal moral rights over art works. The earlier 2002 Myer Report on contemporary visual arts and crafts in Australia had found existing moral rights legislation provided inadequate protection given the social, economic and community responsibilities of artists under indigenous customary law.