Fiona FoleyAboriginal Artist

Topic : Cultural Warriors

• Week 1 – Fiona Foley Biography

• Week 2 – Fiona Foley Art Practice

• Week 3 – Fiona Foley Frames & Conceptual Framework

• What is a Cultural Warrior?

Cultural Warrior : Definition

• Warriors – what / whom are these cultural warriors fighting against?• The mainstream, the establishment, the

uneducated, the uninformed.

• These artist warriors are going on the attackas much as defending their culture.

• They are attacking the ignorance of the general non-indigenous population – raise their awareness, bring them a knowledge of the concealed (deliberately or otherwise) forgotten and whitewashed histories.

Bibliography

• Australian Aboriginal, born Maryborough, Queensland 1964

• Grew up in Hervey Bay and Sydney

• Certificate of Arts at East Sydney Technical College in 1983

• Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of Arts in 1986

• Diploma of Education at the University of Sydney in 1987

Why Foley is aCultural Warrior

• My work today is driven by my custodial responsibilities to my land, Fraser Island and my political existence as an Indigenous person of Australia.

Aboriginal Background

• Fiona Foley is one of Australia’s best known Aboriginal artists and as artist of international repute.

• Her people, the Badtjala, are the original inhabitants of Fraser Island, north of Brisbane.

History of Fraser Island

• The island of K’gari or Thoorgine, as it was known by its inhabitants, came to the attention of colonial Queenslanders with the shipwreck there in 1836 of the Stirling Castle.

• The Captain’s wife, Eliza Fraser, survived and subsequently lied in captivity for six months with the Aboriginal inhabitants.

The Batdjala People’s History

• Many Batdjala people were enslaved by colonial rule, physical violence, disease, and starvation.

• Her traditional society is now in ruins as many of people were massacred or forcibly removed from their ancestral land.

• In 2004, an Aboriginal man named Cameron Doomadgee died in police custody on Palm Island.

Foley Talks : Part Onehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvweA0fGzE

The In-class Essay

• Notes? Yes – however…• Must be handwritten.

• One side of an A4 sheet only.

• No images.

• Quotes must be in APA format.

• Conditions?• Exam conditions, which means no talking, no

looking at other’s papers, and no phones/laptops etc.