2021d. Hampson, J. & Weaver, R. Indigenous art in new contexts: inspiration or appropriation? (original) (raw)

2021, Rozwadowski, A. & Hampson, J. (eds), Visual Culture, Heritage and Identity: Using Rock Art to Reconnect Past and Present.

In many countries, cultural and socio-political identity is shaped, manipulated, presented, and challenged through rock art. Both on and off the rocks, Indigenous pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (engravings) are powerful things in themselves, and powerful tools. Drawing from twenty years of fieldwork in southern Africa, northern Australia, and North America, this chapter focuses on re-contextualised and appropriated rock art images in commercial settings, in new art works, and as integral components of political symbols. Concepts of reproduction, agency, and affect are addressed through archaeological, anthropological, and visual heritage lenses. Specific case studies include the commodification and re-contextualisation of Kokopelli and Thunderbird motifs in the USA; First Nation images in Canada; San paintings and engravings in South Africa; and Aboriginal art in Australia.