Value in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander souvenir art sector

Abstract

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander souvenir art sector with its wide range of products has a long and significant history and is economically important within the industry. However, the full scope of this significance has not been adequately recognised in the academic literature. While the sector's substantial economic contribution is acknowledged in some policy documents, these considerations are generally brief, with little analysis of any value the sector might generate in the social and cultural spheres. This neglect of souvenir art is driven by two key factors: its low status in the social hierarchy of the arts (Bourdieu, 1984), and the difficulty of finding analytical tools capable of assessing the complexities of the sector without falling into assumptions about the cultural value and 'authenticity' of souvenir art. In an attempt to redress this, the thesis develops both a theoretical framework that aims to adequately capture the social, cultural and economic significance of the sector, and analytical tools that cover the broad set of discourses that comprise the subject. As such, I have adapted the insights of modern and critical political economy theories to analyse the distribution of economic capital, and broadened these theories to encompass Pierre Bourdieu's (1984) concepts of social and cultural capital. This combination of theories forms a broad-ranging theoretical framework that accommodates economic capital and the qualitative discursive constructions that inform amounts of social and cultural capital within the same system. I use this framework to illustrate the social, cultural and economic value of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander souvenir art sector and its products. These values are traced through an analysis of seven examples of organisations active in the sector. The thesis undertakes a close analysis of aspects of the souvenir art sector that have not been adequately represented in the literature, including the diversity of organisations and broad spectrum of products. The thesis makes an argument for the legitimacy of the sector while addressing the limitations of discourses of authenticity and inauthenticity. I analyse the political economy of the sector to reveal the interaction between state policies and funding statements and the example organisations, illustrating the substantial social, cultural and economic capital that the sector generates.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English