DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Business and Economics

David Throsby and Ekaterina Petetskaya

Number 1/2015 September 2015 ISSN 1833-5020 (print) 1834-2469 (online)

Macquarie Economics Research Papers

RESEARCH PAPER 1/2015 (SEPTEMBER 2015)

Remote Indigenous Cultural Practitioners in East Arnhem Land: Survey Methodology and Principal Results

Throsby, David and Ekaterina Petetskaya

Remote Indigenous cultural practitioners in East Arnhem Land: Survey methodology and principal results

Research paper 1/2015 (September 2015)

ISSN 1833-5020 (print)

1834-2469 (online)

Published by the Department of Economics, Macquarie University

Building E4A, Room 443

Eastern Avenue

Macquarie University NSW 2109

Tel: +61 2 9850 8474

Email: laura.billington@mq.edu.au

Papers in the series are also available at www.econ.mq.edu.au/research

Remote Indigenous cultural practitioners in East Arnhem

Land: Survey methodology and principal results

David Throsby1 and Ekaterina Petetskaya

ABSTRACT

Arts and cultural production is one of the major avenues for providing incomes and economic

opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is particularly true in remote towns,

settlements, homelands and outstations across Australia, where arts and cultural production is likely to

be one of the most important means for providing a viable and culturally-relevant livelihood for

members of the community. But there is little systematic data on the economic conditions of individual

cultural production in remote regions and on how such production can contribute towards the economic

and cultural sustainability of communities in such areas. This report provides details of a survey of

individual cultural practitioners undertaken in one such region, East Arnhem Land in Northern

Australia, during 2012-2014. The survey formed part of a larger ARC Discovery project titled The Value

of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage: Cultural Production and Regional Economies in East Arnhem Land and

the Western Desert. The survey was designed to identify ways in which the accumulation of cultural

capital occurs in remote Indigenous communities, and to investigate why and how Indigenous adults in

the study region utilise their cultural capital when participating in economic and cultural activities. This

report gives an outline of the survey methodology, the survey instrument design, the sampling procedure

and the survey implementation. It also provides an overview of the survey results. The report concludes

by noting the fundamental role played by intergenerational cultural transmission, not only in endowing

cultural practitioners with the knowledge and skills that they draw upon in their work, but also in

motivating them in allocating their time between their cultural responsibilities and obligations and their

production of work for the market. It is clear that art and cultural production does indeed offer

considerable potential for contributing to the regional economy in a manner that also enhances cultural

sustainability and resilience.

Keywords: Cultural practitioners, cultural heritage, individual artists, cultural capital, Australian

Aboriginal art, economic and cultural sustainability

JEL classification: Z10, Z13

1 Corresponding author; Professor of Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Ph: +61 2 9850 8474, email :

david.throsby@mq.edu.au

The research was conducted as part of a three-year study entitled The value of Aboriginal cultural heritage:

Cultural production and regional economies in Eastern Arnhem Land and the Western Desert, funded by the

Australian Research Council under a Discovery Project grant (DP120101387).

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1

2. RELEVANCE/NEED FOR THE PROJECT ............................................................................. 1

3. SURVEY OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS ........................................................................... 2

4. TARGET POPULATION .......................................................................................................... 3

5. SAMPLING ISSUES ................................................................................................................ 8

6. QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................................................................... 9

7. SURVEY IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................... 13

8. SAMPLE vs. TARGET POPULATION AND WEIGHTING ISSUES ...................................... 17

9. MAIN RESULTS .................................................................................................................... 18

10. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................... 26

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 27

APPENDIX 1: CONSENT FORM ..................................................................................................... 28

APPENDIX 2: GARMA FESTIVAL .................................................................................................... 29

APPENDIX 3: CULTURAL ACTIVITIES ........................................................................................... 31

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. 33

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1. INTRODUCTION

Arts and cultural production is one of the major avenues for providing incomes and economic

opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is particularly true in remote towns,

settlements, homelands and outstations across Australia, where arts and cultural production is likely

to be one of the most important means for providing a viable and culturally-relevant livelihood for

members of the community. Indeed it can be suggested that in a number of such locations, the only

feasible pathway towards long-term economic and cultural sustainability lies in the production and

marketing of artistic and cultural goods and services, such as visual and performing arts production,

cultural tourism, cultural and environmental management and so on. Indigenous Australians possess

significant cultural skills and knowledge, which they utilise while participating in a wide range of arts

and cultural activities. These are the activities that allow Indigenous cultures to be maintained,

developed and expressed, ensuring their continuation. They also encourage a strong sense of

community identity.

The contribution of cultural production to the economic sustainability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander communities in remote Australia remains a poorly researched area, notwithstanding the

significant contributions of studies cited in the next section. Indigenous skills and knowledge have

rarely received proper acknowledgement in economic development initiatives. But to comprehend the

role of cultural production in sustainable economic development, the situation of the individual

cultural practitioner needs to be understood, since art and cultural production begins with the

individual working alone or as a member of a group. While there is a lot of information about the

working circumstances of professional artists in the mainstream in Australia, there are no reliable or

comprehensive data on the conditions under which individual cultural production occurs in remote

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This survey was designed as a first step towards

filling that gap. The survey is part of a larger ARC Discovery project titled The Value of Aboriginal

Cultural Heritage: Cultural Production and Regional Economies in East Arnhem Land and the

Western Desert (DP120101387) that was initiated in 2012 and is due for completion in 2015. The

project aims to examine the economic and cultural value of Indigenous cultural heritage and to

identify how and which forms of Aboriginal cultural heritage create sustainable development

opportunities in remote communities. The research brings together the theoretical concepts and

empirical methods of cultural economics and cultural anthropology in an integrated framework for

evaluating the role of Indigenous cultural heritage in the context of regional economic development.

The chief investigators in the project have been Professors Howard Morphy (Australian National

University) and David Throsby (Macquarie University).

The survey discussed in this report focuses on one specific Indigenous arts and cultural region in

Australia, Arnhem Land, and on all major forms of artistic and cultural production in this region. The

survey was designed and undertaken by Professor Throsby and Ekaterina Petetskaya, the research

team based at Macquarie University, in close collaboration with Yolngu communities, organisations

and individuals in the East Arnhem Land region. This report gives an outline of the survey

methodology, the survey instrument design and sampling procedure. It also provides an overview of

the survey results; more detailed analyses will be presented in subsequent publications.

2. RELEVANCE/NEED FOR THE PROJECT

Several research projects have been undertaken in the past that deal with issues of artistic production

in various parts of Australia. For example, Jon Altman’s work in Maningrida (Altman 1982) and his

Review of the Aboriginal Art and Crafts Industry in the late 1980s (Altman 1989) provided very

valuable data that had not been assembled before, but it was confined to a particular industry and is

now a long way out of date. More recent studies have focussed on specific locations or modes of

practice, including, for example, the Canning Stock Route project 2007-2009 (Ngurra Kuju Walyja

2014), and several modules of the research undertaken under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Art Economies Project of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation based

at Curtin University (CRC-REP 2015). The Art Economies Project gathered extensive data from the

supply and demand sides of the primary market and estimated the production and sale of Indigenous

visual art in remote Australia (Acker and Woodhead 2015a and 2015b). However, that project was

2

limited to the visual art industry, and focused on Indigenous art centres and private art businesses

trading in Australia rather than on individual Indigenous artists. A further study was published in the

report the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations under the title At the Heart of Art (ORIC

2012). This study examined the 101 corporations registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander) Act over four consecutive financial years using information gathered by the

Registrar. Again, the predominant focus of the report was on the visual arts sector. In addition, the

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) of the ABS provides current

national-level data about Indigenous participation in selected forms of creative arts as well as about

their engagement in some customary activities (ABS 2002, 2008); this survey, however, is not geared

towards cultural production, and its results are not designed to address the sorts of questions that

motivate the present study.

In the mainstream arts in Australia it has been recognised that the only way to collect reliable, robust,

systematic and objective data about the conditions of individual artistic production is via a nationwide

survey. Such a survey was undertaken for the first time in 1983 as a component of the Australia

Council’s Individual Artist Inquiry, and has been repeated periodically ever since, with the most recent

survey having been carried out in 2009 (Throsby and Zednik 2010). The information about arts

practice yielded by the surveys has been of inestimable value to government departments and agencies

at Federal, State and Territory, and local levels, peak bodies in all areas of the arts, other arts-related

organisations, cultural institutions and the general public. But while these surveys have included

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists working at a professional level in the mainstream –

mostly in metropolitan and other urban locations – it has never been possible to extend the coverage

to include remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. It has always been apparent that a

completely different questionnaire and survey methodology would have to be applied to these artists.

Up until now, however, the resources, both human and financial, that would be required to undertake

such a project have not been available. The present survey is a step towards remedying this situation.

Several reasons make this project timely at the present moment. There has been renewed emphasis in

government policy on initiatives aimed at overcoming disadvantage and providing meaningful

employment and economic opportunity for Indigenous people. There is considerable scope for

consolidation of the economic base for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and the Strategic

Plan adopted by the Australia Council for the Arts in 2014 places considerable emphasis in this area.

At the same time, concerns continue to be raised regarding the viability of some remote Indigenous

communities. In these circumstances the need for a clearer understanding of the ways in which

production of cultural goods and services can contribute to long-term sustainability has never been

more urgent.

3. SURVEY OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS

The survey was designed to identify ways in which the accumulation of cultural capital occurs in

remote Indigenous communities in the study region, and to investigate why and how Indigenous

adults in the study region utilise their cultural capital when participating in economic and cultural

activities. The study developed and applied a survey instrument and methodology that provides a

prototype model that is currently being adapted for application in other Indigenous regions in

Australia.

In this study we use the term cultural practitioners to refer to persons who have had experience in

utilising their cultural capital (cultural heritage, knowledge and skills) to produce arts and cultural

products and services whether for sale, domestic consumption or cultural purposes. The specific

activities designated as cultural production in this study are detailed in Section 4 of this Report.

The principal research questions that the survey was designed to address were the following:

What are the characteristics of remote Indigenous cultural practitioners in the study region?

How do Indigenous cultural practitioners attain their cultural knowledge, skills, training and

education to participate in activities that are based on their culture?

What sorts of training and experience have been essential in developing their capacities for this

work?

3

How many Indigenous cultural practitioners (those with experience) participate in art and cultural

activities?

How many choose to exit the art and cultural sector? What are the reasons for discontinuation of

practice?

What are the time allocation strategies that Indigenous cultural practitioners employ to distribute

their time between art and cultural production for a market, local consumption, volunteering and

doing other work?

How important is cultural production as an income source for Indigenous cultural practitioners

and their communities?

How many Indigenous cultural practitioners earn income from producing goods and services that

are based on their culture? In what form this income is received?

What factors have either facilitated or acted as an obstacle to advancement of the careers of remote

Indigenous artists and cultural practitioners?

4. TARGET POPULATION

4.1 INTRODUCING THE SURVEY POPULATION AND REGION

The target population in this study are adult cultural practitioners residing in the East Arnhem Land

region in the Northern Territory of Australia, the traditional land of the Yolngu people. The colonial

history of the Yolngu people differs from that of many other Indigenous Australians. The Yolngu led a

relatively autonomous existence until the 1930s; they were subject to few massacres and the impact of

introduced diseases was considerably less than in many other parts of Australia (Berndt and Berndt

1954, Morphy 2007). The Methodist Overseas Mission interfered little directly with Yolngu cultural

practices, did not introduce a dormitory system where children were separated from their parents and

developed literacy programs in the Yolngu languages (Morphy 2005). Art and cultural production has

always played a central role in Yolngu life. The visual arts have developed along distinctive lines, with

particular emphasis on paintings on bark. The traditions of Yolngu music and dance have contributed

to the evolution of contemporary Australian Aboriginal arts through the work of ensembles such as

Yothu Yindi and the Bangarra dance company. The annual Garma festival held in the East Arnhem

Land region provides a major forum for discussing Indigenous issues and for introducing visitors to

the different domains of Yolngu cultural knowledge2

The East Arnhem Land region includes the mining town of Nhulunbuy, the major communities of

Yirrkala, Galiwinku, Ramingining, Milingimbi and Gapuwiyak – typically established as former

missions – and small communities located on the traditional homelands of the various Yolngu clans.

The major communities are those with some ‘hub’ settlement characteristics, such as a shop, a school,

a Centrelink agency or a fuel outlet. During the homelands movement that began in the early 1970s,

large numbers of the Yolngu moved out from the larger communities like Yirrkala to form small

settlements on the surrounding clan estates, while the larger communities still remain as service

centres for these homelands. The homelands in East Arnhem Land vary in size from well over 100

people to very small settlements that could be home to a single extended family of fewer than 20

people. People from the landowning clan and intermarrying clans typically populate them (Morphy

2012: 18).

4.2 IDENTIFYING REGIONAL CULTURAL PRODUCTION

The Yolngu apply their cultural resources towards achieving economic, social and cultural outcomes in

many different ways. In order to identify the range of activities that can be interpreted as cultural

production for the target population of cultural practitioners, the research team undertook a mapping

exercise initiated via individual discussions and participatory workshops in the region. This process

2 For further details, see Morphy and Throsby (2015).

4

usually started with a simple diagram with a “Yolngu culture” circle being drawn in the middle. The

participants were then asked to identify cultural activities that could come from their culture and that

they thought were important to them, their families and the wider Yolngu community. Once this was

completed, the participants were asked to identify among these cultural activities those that were also

economic activities, i.e. “those cultural activities that bring jobs and incomes”. The diagram below

(Figure 1) shows the results of the mapping exercise.

Figure 1: Cultural-economic activities in East Arnhem Land

The mapping exercise allowed the research team to identify 15 cultural-economic activities that are

currently practised in the region, classified into the following three categories relating specifically to

Yolngu culture and forms of cultural expression:

1. Creative artistic activities:

Making arts or crafts

Composing music

Writing or storytelling

Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio program

2. Cultural maintenance activities:

Participating in ceremonies

Caring for country

Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

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3. Applied cultural activities:

Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food

Providing tourism services

Providing health services

Making medicine or cosmetics

Making Yolngu design

An additional “Other” option to identify any other cultural-economic activities was also offered to

respondents. It needs to be noted that the above classification is not according to any particular

categorisation system used by the Yolngu themselves – for example, all of these activities could be seen

by the Yolngu as cultural maintenance activities.

Almost every adult Yolngu in the region will have had previous experience in some of the above listed

cultural-economic activities. The following three activities are particularly common in the East

Arnhem Land region: fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food; participating in ceremonies;

and caring for country. While these cultural activities can also be seen as economic, the majority of the

Yolngu population participate in these activities without being paid for it – in this case, the production

occurs for the customary sector and not necessarily for the market. Because the scope of the survey

was to identify those cultural practitioners who are active in both the customary and market sectors,

two requirements were introduced to determine eligibility for inclusion in the survey: (1) respondents

had to have had previous experience in at least three of the fifteen cultural-economic activities; and (2)

if only three of the most common cultural-economic activities were selected, respondents had to have

received payment for at least one of these three activities.

All cultural-economic activities listed above can be interpreted with reference to standard industrial

definitions as determined under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification

(ANZSIC) 2006 (Revision 2.0), as shown in Appendix 4.

4.3 IDENTIFYING THE SURVEY REGION

For the purpose of this survey, the boundaries of the study region coincide with the boundaries of East

Arnhem Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and Nhulunbuy SA2 as defined by the Australian Bureau of

Statistics (ABS)3. Within East Arnhem SA2 and Nhulunbuy SA2, there are six Indigenous areas

(IAREs) and 16 Indigenous locations (ILOCs) 4 as shown in Table 1.

3 The Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) is an area defined in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), and consists of one or more whole Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1s). Wherever possible SA2s are based on officially gazetted State suburbs and localities. In rural areas, they define functional zones of social and economic links. Geography is also taken into account in SA2 design. SA2s cover, in aggregate, the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps. 4 Indigenous Areas (IAREs) are aggregates of one or more Indigenous Locations (ILOCs) and ideally have a minimum of 250 Indigenous usual residents. IAREs aggregate to Indigenous Regions (IREGs), and cover the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps.

6

Table 1: Indigenous locations and Indigenous areas within the study region

ABS Indigenous Locations (ILOCs) ABS Indigenous Areas (IAREs)

Gapuwiyak Gapuwiyak and Outstations

Gapuwiyak Outstations Gapuwiyak and Outstations

Dhalinybuy Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands

Gan Gan Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands

Gumatj - Surrounds Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands

Laynhapuy Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands

Yilpara Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands

Galiwinku Marthakal Homelands - Galiwinku

Marthakal Homelands exc. Galiwinku Marthakal Homelands - Galiwinku

Gunyangara Nhulunbuy - Gunyangara

Nhulunbuy Nhulunbuy - Gunyangara

Numbulwar and Outstations Numbulwar and Outstations

Milingimbi Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations

Ramingining Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations

Ramingining - Milingimbi Outstations Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations

Yirrkala Yirrkala

Source: 1270.0.55.002 - Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 2 - Indigenous Structure

All of the locations and areas included in the study region are classified as ‘very remote’ in the 2011

ASGS Remoteness Structure.5

4.4 IDENTIFYING THE TOTAL POPULATION OF YOLNGU CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS

While it is well understood that Indigenous people living in remote areas possess significant skills and

knowledge, how many of them participate in cultural production for economic purposes is largely

unknown. In an attempt to address this gap, we have made use of the series of National Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Social Surveys (NATSISS), the first of which was undertaken in 1994, followed

by the 2002 and 2008 surveys. The most recent NATSISS (2024-2015) is due to be released in March

2016. The 2002 survey asked respondents whether in the 12 months before interview they had taken

part in any of the following creative artistic activities:

Making Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander arts or crafts

Performing any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander music, dance, theatre

Writing or telling any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander stories.

In the 2008 survey, the wording of these categories was changed slightly and three new response

categories for customary activities were included:

Fishing

Hunting

Gathering wild plants/ berries

5 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Volume 5 – Remoteness Areas, July 2011 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.005).

7

The designations used in the 2008 survey could not be readily rationalised against the criteria adopted

in the present study, so it was necessary to use the 2002 percentages as a basis for estimating the

numbers of Indigenous cultural practitioners in the region covered by our survey. The NATSISS 2002

data specific to the study region were not available; however, it was possible to stratify the aggregate

data by remote and non-remote areas. Because differences in estimates of participation in remote and

non-remote areas are not statistically significant (ABS 2006) we used the nationwide data to estimate

the proportions of cultural practitioners in the study region.

Analysis of the 2002 NATSISS data indicates that 27.4 percent of Indigenous people in Australia aged

15 years or over had participated in at least one of the above creative artistic activities in 2002, as

shown in Table 2. We therefore assume that this percentage can be applied to the adult Indigenous

population in our survey region in order to estimate a lower bound on the number of cultural

practitioners located in the region. The resulting estimate of almost 1,300 cultural practitioners, as

shown in Table 3, is likely to understate the true figure because our definition covers a wider range of

cultural activities than are included in the NATSISS data. Nevertheless, for the purposes of estimating

appropriate sample sizes, we can adopt the estimates from Table 3.

Table 2: Participation in NATSISS selected cultural activities by adult (15+)

Indigenous Australians, 2002

Participation in selected creative artistic activities (a) in 2002

N (weighted) %

Participated 77,324 27.4

Did not participate 204,882 72.6

Total 282,205 100.0

Source: ABS 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey

Table 3: Indigenous adult population and target population in the study region,

2011 (no.)

IAREs covered by the survey Indigenous adult

population (no.)

Estimated number of Indigenous cultural

practitioners (no.)

Nhulunbuy – Gunyangara 340 93

Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 413 113

Marthakal Homelands – Galiwinku 1,399 383

Gapuwiyak and Outstations 686 188

Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations 1,373 376

Yirrkala 490 134

Total 4,701 1,288

Note: (a) For activities included, see text. Source: ABS 2011 Census of Population and Housing

8

Note that this estimate of the population of cultural practitioners is broadly consistent with the data on

artist numbers assembled for the Art Economies Value Chain project undertaken in 2010-2014 in the

Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation based at Curtin University.6

5. SAMPLING ISSUES

The appropriate sampling methodology for a survey such as this would be one involving systematic

random sampling from a complete list of names of adult Yolngu cultural practitioners, i.e. the target

population. However, implementation of such an approach faces a number of obstacles. First, while

some of the Yolngu cultural practitioners, particularly visual artists, are registered and listed with

some organisations such as art centres, professional associations or Indigenous corporations, there is a

high probability that many of the Yolngu involved in different cultural activities are not on any of these

lists. Yolngu artists who choose to work independently from art centres, or cultural practitioners who

undertake cultural work unpaid, are likely not to be registered with any organisation. Also not all

professional associations have lists of Yolngu individuals they represent; for example, the Association

of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA), the peak Indigenous art body for

the region, does not hold regional lists of artists, relying on databases managed by the art centres

located in the region. While some regional art centres are well organised and have comprehensive

listings of the artists they work with, their databases are mainly focused on visual artists. Some Yolngu

cultural practitioners, particularly those involved in writing and storytelling are likely not to be

associated with any particular organisation.

For all of these reasons, sampling from a complete population list of cultural practitioners was not a

possible approach to apply in the present study. An alternative would be to make use of a list of the

entire Yolngu adult population of the study region, including those Yolngu who are cultural

practitioners and those who are not. In this case a sampling frame could be constructed from different

regional administrative records available, such as those held by medical centres or government

departments based in the region. A cluster sampling methodology could be applied to limit the

number of locations that would need to be included. The selected regions would have to be small

enough to enable a list of cultural practitioners in the region to be compiled. In our case, Indigenous

Locations (ILOCs) as defined by the ABS could have been an appropriate option. This approach would

allow us to simplify the problems associated with building the sampling frame, since the ILOC

geographical units are small enough for the survey team to contemplate creating a list of Yolngu

cultural practitioners or adult Yolngu residents for these areas.

However, even when lists of names do exist, there are difficulties in building up a sampling frame.

Many organisations are not willing to disclose their members’ contact details to third parties for

privacy reasons. Moreover, listed names may be misleading; there is a practice of adoption of non-

Yolngu surnames and given names, and most Yolngu have multiple given names (at least two, and

sometimes up to seven). Thus, a person may be known by two or three of their names. In addition,

some of their names may not be being used due to a recent death of a person with the same or a similar

sounding name. In other words, the same person could be listed under different names in different

administrative records (Morphy 2012: 19), which creates a problem of multiple counting.

Furthermore, there are significant logistical and travel issues that would need to be dealt with. For

example, it is likely to take some time to organise invitations to visit homelands and arrange the

necessary permissions. Communities and homelands in East Arnhem Land are spread out, and

travelling to these widely separated geographical units is usually very costly in terms of both money

and time. Another problem is residence patterns in the region that make it difficult to locate individual

Yolngu in their listed addresses. High mobility of population and seasonality had to be taken into

account when planning fieldtrips. Thus, although the cluster sampling approach could have reduced

the associated travelling requirements and simplified the process of building the sample frame

compared with the full enumeration methods described earlier, it proved to be infeasible to adopt this

6 This project identified 1,723 visual artists in an Indigenous population of 7,095 across the whole of Arnhem Land (Acker and Woodhead, 2015b). Applying this proportion (0.24) to the Indigenous population estimate of the East Arnhem land region gives an estimated number of visual artists in the region of 1,128; this number can be compared with our survey, which finds that 85 per cent of cultural practitioners have practised visual art (see Table 11), indicating a total number of 1,095 in the target population who have ever practised the visual arts.

9

approach, primarily because of budget limitations. In the end, we were obliged to use a more limited

sampling procedure, with the option of weighting the resulting sample using known characteristics of

the target population to standardise the results obtained. These procedures are described later in this

report.

On the basis of the estimates of the target population and of the proportion of cultural practitioners in

the survey region as reported in Section 4 above, it was calculated that the minimum sample size

needed for this study would be n=52 at a confidence level of 90 percent and a margin of error of 10

percent. In the event we obtained a total sample size of 71 completed responses, as described in more

detail below.

6. QUESTIONNAIRE

6.1 SURVEY INSTRUMENT DESIGN

To devise a survey instrument that will be culturally appropriate and comprehensible to respondents,

it was essential that Indigenous cultural practitioners in the study region should participate in the

questionnaire design process. To achieve this, a number of scoping trips, information sessions,

participatory workshops and multiple individual interviews were carried out in the region between

March 2012 and August 2014.

The path of gradual engagement with the local communities was chosen to overcome suspicions and

concerns that many Yolngu have about outside balanda (or non-Yolngu) researchers. The survey

benefited significantly from having Professor Morphy, a leading anthropologist of art and material

culture who has had a long-term engagement particularly with the Yolngu arts and crafts industry, as

co-chief investigator of The Value of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage project. Professor Morphy has

undertaken many years of fieldwork in East Arnhem Land and was able to provide local insight and

introduce the research team to the regional Yolngu networks. Frances Morphy, also a distinguished

anthropologist and linguist who has been working with the Yolngu in North East Arnhem Land since

the mid-1970s, was another important contributor to the project. She was particularly involved during

the survey instrument development stage because of her previous experience in developing and

implementing surveys in remote Indigenous regions of Australia, such as the Gumurr Miwatj Yolngu

population survey for North East Arnhem Land.

During the course of the research the project team had contacted relevant Indigenous corporations,

community councils, and local art and tourism organisations in order to gain permissions, establish

support for the survey, facilitate relationships and guide the survey process. Many of these

organisations also provided valuable insight during the development of the survey instrument. They

included:

Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA)

Buku Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre

Bula’bula Arts

Dhimurru Rangers

Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts

Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation (LHAC)

Lirrwi Tourism

Miwatj Employment

Rripanngu Yiadaki

Yirrkala Homelands School

Yirralka Rangers

Yirrkala School

10

The project team undertook multiple fieldtrips to the region throughout different stages of the project.

During the first three trips of the first stage of the project in March 2012, May 2013 and October 2013,

the survey project was introduced to the regional relevant agencies, organisations and local

communities so that their feedback could be incorporated in the survey design. These repeated trips

were also crucial to obtain relevant approvals to proceed with the survey. Most importantly, they

allowed the necessary time for developing the survey instrument with our Yolngu collaborators.

Several more formal participatory workshops were held in Yirrkala in October 2013, allowing the

research team: to introduce and inform the regional communities about the survey in a more official

way; to check that the survey questions reflected the issues that the Yolngu in East Arnhem Land face;

to incorporate local and region-specific insight; and to strengthen cooperation, build relationships and

create some good word-of-mouth for the project.

Further refinement of the survey instrument and pilot testing occurred in February 2014. The survey

interviews were conducted in July, August and November of that year.

6.2 YOLNGU COLLABORATORS

Yolngu people who can operate in both Yolngu and non-Yolngu worlds, and who can understand and

interpret Yolngu concepts to/from a non-Yolngu perspective, are frequently called “bridge people”.

Only a relatively small number of people in any given community can perform “bridge people” tasks;

they are usually in high demand in their respective communities and hence engaging them to work on

a project can be problematic. Nevertheless, the project benefited greatly from involvement and support

of a number of collaborators from the communities we worked with between 2012 and 2014, including

Dhanggal Gurruwiwi of the Galpu clan; Waka Mununggurr of the Madarrpa clan; Yananymul

Mununggurr of the Djapu clan; Djawa Yunupingu, Randjupi Yunupingu, Djapirri Mununggirritj and

Djawa Burarrwanga from the Gumatj clan; Wukun Wanambi from the Marrakulu clan; Galuma

Maymuru from the Manggalili clan; Dhukal Wirrpanda from the Dhudi Djapu clan; Rarriwuy Marika,

Wayalwanga Marika, Ishmael Marika and Phillip Marika of the Rirratjingu clan; and Joseph

Neparrnga Gumbula of the Gupapuyngu clan. Five of these collaborators were employed subsequently

under the supervision of the project team as casual staff of Macquarie University (Professional Level 8)

as translators/interpreters of the survey questionnaire, cross-cultural consultants and survey

interviewers. The Yolngu collaborators also gave an alternative name to the project – Yolŋu Rom

Djäma Mirriyama – which literally means something like "work that comes from Yolngu

culture/law". A shortened rendering of this phrase might be Earning on country.

It was important to ensure that all interviewers and translators/interpreters understood the purpose of

the survey and ideas behind the questions of the survey instrument. Training for the task included the

project coordinator taking potential interviewers, translators and interpreters through the project

development process to explain how and why particular questions were included. The interviewers

were also trained in how to enter details into computer tablets, although in the event about half of the

respondents opted to do this task themselves. The training took approximately two to three hours and

typically involved the trainees in completing the survey themselves.

6.3 QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT

As noted above, the survey instrument was a product of collaboration between the Macquarie

University researchers and the Yolngu partners; it operated with concepts and categorisations that

exist in both the Yolngu and the balanda realms. The terminology used reflected this duality. Some of

the concepts used in the survey such as “cultural capital” or “cultural resources” are used by the Yolngu

in their everyday life and have similar meaning for the Yolngu and for cultural economists. On the

other hand, the research team had to work out how to formulate some Yolngu concepts in English as

well as to interpret concepts such as “economy”, “in the last year”, “working full time”, “working for a

non-for-profit organisation” and others, because Yolngu languages do not have a vocabulary for many

of these concepts.

The first draft questionnaire was produced in August 2013 following the initial field trips to the region.

It was workshopped during a meeting with the anthropology team at the Australian National

University, including Professor Howard Morphy, Dr Marianne Riphagen and Frances Morphy, in

September 2013. The survey instrument was then modified a number of times to develop an outline of

questionnaire topics. The final topic headings are shown in Table 4.

11

Table 4. Topic headings for the survey questionnaire

Questionnaire sections Questionnaire topics

Section A: Individual characteristics

Gender, age, highest formal education, marital status, number of dependent children. Clan association, place of homeland, place of residence.

Section B: Acquisition of cultural capital and professional development

Pathways to gain cultural knowledge to participate in cultural activities. Pathways to gain professional skills to participate in cultural activities. Level of cultural competency (seniority). Level of professional development.

Section C: Cultural production Experience in the art and cultural industries: Cultural activities ever done. Existing practice in the art and cultural industries: Cultural activities in the last year. Paid cultural activities in the last year. Time spent on cultural activities in the last year.

Section D: Conditions of paid cultural production

Type of income received from cultural activities. Type of payment from cultural activities. Cultural activities work arrangement.

Section E: Circumstances of cultural production

Willingness to do more or less of paid cultural activities. Reasons for discontinuing paid cultural activities. Reasons for doing unpaid cultural activities. Reasons for stopping cultural activities in the last year.

Section F: Other paid work (not cultural activities)

Time spent on other paid work. Type of income received from other paid work. Type of payment from other paid work. Other paid work arrangement.

6.4 LANGUAGE

The first language for the vast majority of Yolngu is one of the Yolngu-matha dialects. English can be

anywhere from a third to a tenth language for them. It would therefore be only logical for the survey

questionnaire to be written in Yolngu-matha. The obvious advantage of using Yolngu-matha is that it

would give a clear signal to the interviewees that the survey was being undertaken “by Yolngu for

Yolngu”. Additionally, because the survey uses Yolngu concepts and terms it would have been

appropriate to include their Yolngu-matha version in the questionnaire. Nevertheless, after consulting

with our collaborators it was decided that the survey questionnaire should be presented to

respondents in English. This decision was taken for several reasons. Firstly, although an ideal scenario

might be to translate the questionnaire into a number of dialects, this was logistically infeasible.

Secondly, if only a single dialect were to be used, the question would arise as to which one.

12

A significant proportion of the population of the region lives in the area around Yirrkala and

Nhulunbuy, where Gumatj is one of the most commonly spoken variants and many Yolngu-matha

speakers understand it. However, all dialects are socially marked as intrinsically belonging to a

particular country and to the clan that owns that country (Morphy 2012: 20). The feedback from our

collaborators was that in a situation like this the English language would be the most neutral and

would eliminate suspicions regarding an undesirable association of this survey with a particular clan

group.

In the event, the English version of the survey instrument was the one actually used in the field for

respondents who had no difficulties with the English language. Otherwise, the English version was

translated orally by one of the translators/ interpreters into whichever of Yolngu-matha dialects was

known to the respondent. The translation and interpretation of the English form was rehearsed with

the field assistants prior the interviews to ensure that no information would be omitted or questions

paraphrased in a way that they could lose their original meaning.

6.5 PILOT TESTING

Pilot testing of the questionnaire was carried out in Yirrkala and Birritjimi in February 2014 and in

July 2014. The process included: field testing and field rehearsal of the draft questionnaire;

identification of survey instrument design errors; checking the clarity of the survey concepts to

respondents; testing the interlinking and consistency of the survey questions; undertaking a full

timing; and assessing administration, management and procedural issues. Information on the

following issues was specifically sought from the piloting process:

The possibility of non-responses to questions that may be considered culturally inappropriate or

“too direct”.

Language and cultural differences and issues of using translators/interpreters.

Literacy levels of respondents.

Ability of the survey to accommodate different worldviews, for example, alternative concepts of

time.

The possibility of non-responses to certain questions if being asked by an interviewer who is male

or female, a Yolngu from the same area or a non-Yolngu. In some cases, for example, it was

important to ensure that interviewers and respondents were not familiar to each other.

The possibility of forming a “consensus position” by respondents from the same family.

One of the objectives of the first draft of the questionnaire was to test whether it was possible to collect

more detailed data about time spent on cultural activities and income generated from these activities

annually. Respondents were asked questions such as “How much do you think you receive from [a

cultural activity] and in what time period?” and “Think about your entire last week or last month, how

many full days do you think you spent on [a cultural activity]? Please do not include any other work

and activities that do not relate to this cultural activity”. The majority of the pilot test responders

found these questions intrusive, felt uncomfortable answering them and gave inconsistent answers,

while some refused to answer. Consequently, these questions had to be removed and alternatives

needed to be found to be included into the survey instrument.

In the initial pilot in February 2014 it took about two hours for respondents to complete the draft

questionnaire. Thus, the draft questionnaire had to be reworked and the second pilot test was

required. The research team spent some time on simplifying the survey form, reducing its length and

further clarifying the survey concepts. The questions about income details were removed as were

questions regarding access to data from external organisations7. In the second pilot test in July 2014,

7 Permission was sought from interviewees in the pilot to gain access to their information from one or other of the organisations to which they beloing. Such permissions would have allowed the survey team to enquire about those details on respondents’ behalf. To do so respondents had to give details of their full names and date of birth. It was explained to the respondents that their responses would remain confidential and that their identity would not be revealed in the survey findings. However, only one of the respondents in the pilot test agreed to grant such permission, and this option was not pursued in the survey proper.

13

the average time for completing the questionnaire was approximately 40 minutes; all respondents

completed the questionnaire during the second pilot test.

7. SURVEY IMPLEMENTATION

7.1 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

The survey was administered by computer-assisted face-to-face interviews. While personal interview is

one of the most expensive methods to conduct a survey compared with phone interviews or online

surveys, it does provide for collection of more accurate data than the other methods. In any case,

limited access to phone and the Internet in the region made these other alternatives impractical. The

interviews were conducted in the following five locations in East Arnhem Land as well as one location

outside the study region:

Yirrkala, a larger community and the centre for many of the services provided to the surrounding

homelands.

Gunyangara, a smaller community with some of the ‘hub’ settlement characteristics.

Birritjimi (Wallaby Beach), a small community, located near the Alcan refinery site.

Nhulunbuy, located 15 kilometers from the Gove Airport, the mining town that has been financially

supported by the Rio Tinto bauxite mine.

Gukula, the site of the Garma Festival in August 2014.

Mount Bundy Station at Adelaide River, Northern Territory, the location of the ANKAAA Arnhem

Regional Meeting in November 2014.

There were a number of reasons for choosing these particular locations for the survey:

Conducting the survey in bigger communities like Yirrkala or Gunyangara permitted capturing a

significant component of Yolngu cultural practitioners from surrounding homelands in addition to

local residents. Entire families may use two houses as their residences, both seasonally and on a

temporary basis, one in a hub community such as Yirrkala and one in their homeland. Many

Yolngu who spend most of their time at their outstation in the dry season come in to major

communities to shop and socialise.

In East Arnhem Land, the Garma Festival pulls in significant numbers of people, sometimes entire

families, from many of the region’s communities and homelands, some of which are very remote

and very difficult to access. The idea to carry out the survey at the festival so that cultural

practitioners from remote homelands could be captured by the survey came from one of our Yolngu

collaborators, Dhanggal Gurruwiwi, who at the time was also an Executive Board Member of

Garma (see Appendix 3).

The ANKAAA regional meetings8 bring many of cultural practitioners from the ANKAAA regions,

including Arnhem Land, in one location for a few days. Attending an event like this provided us

with an opportunity to interview cultural practitioners from the study region, including from those

communities and homelands that would have been difficult to access otherwise. In 2014, Mount

Bundy Station at Adelaide River, Northern Territory was the location of the Arnhem Regional

Meeting that was held on 12-14 November. The project team received permission from ANKAAA to

interview artists from the study region that were invited to attend the event.

In order to ensure that all individuals from the target population had a chance to be selected and

represented in the survey, we adopted the following strategies when finding survey respondents:

8 Every year ANKAAA holds regional meetings for each of its four regions: The Arnhem Land Region, Tiwi Region,

Darwin/Katherine Region, Kimberley Region.

14

Potential respondents were located via connections to a family or an organisation, or were

approached in public spaces in the survey locations listed above.

The interviewers explained the nature and objectives of the survey to the potential respondents,

who were then asked whether they would be willing to participate in the survey.

Screening questions as detailed earlier in this report were then asked to allow for elimination of

ineligible respondents.

Because the survey was voluntary, informed consent was required. The interviewers were trained to

give a short description of the project to respondents and a brief summary of the project was displayed

in the online and offline questionnaire versions. In addition, a printed diagram was given to

respondents to help them to grasp the objectives of the survey visually (see Figure 1 in Section 4.1

above). Respondents then were asked to give their oral consent to proceed with the interview (see

Appendix 2). The survey team planned that if possible all survey interviews would be conducted

privately because of the sensitive nature of some survey questions. However, where respondents

wished for some other people to be present during the interview, this was accommodated.

It is usual for some reward to be offered to people who complete surveys such as this. Typically

researchers offer participants movie or shopping vouchers, entry into major prize draws and so on.

We were advised by our collaborators that it would be polite to give a small reward/present to those

who would agree to participate in the survey, in line with the local gift economy which places high

value on producing social relations and their maintenance. Accordingly, respondents were given a

small "thank you" amount of $20 upon completion of the survey. A cash reward was deemed more

appropriate than a fuel or food vouchers, because not many people own a vehicle and even travelling to

particular food stores could have been problematic for some.

Fig.2: Yolngu interviewers assist survey respondents in Yirrkala

7.2 DATA ENTERING AND RECORD KEEPING

Apple iPads were used in the field to record, store, manipulate and transmit the survey data collected.

All iPads and researchers’ computers utilised in collecting survey data were protected with a

password. If an online connection was available when the interview was taking place, the online

version of the survey form was used, otherwise the offline form was utilised. In either case, the

15

interviewers would oversee respondents entering data on the iPads and assist them as required. About

half of the respondents entered their data themselves. Figure 2 shows this process in operation.

We used the Surveygizmo and Qualtrics survey software for the administration of the survey –

Surveygizmo to develop the online version of the questionnaire and Qualtrics for the offline version. In

cases where an Internet connection was not accessible at the time of interviewing, responses would be

held on an iPad and uploaded back into Qualtrics when the connection was available. This could

usually be done within 24 hours. The data stored on an iPad were protected with a password so if the

same iPad was used in the field again the earlier data would not be accessible to others.

Subsequent data cleaning included checking quota fields; corrections of misspelling; cleaning skip

patterns; reviewing "other" responses; source document cleaning; and weighting data (see further

below).

7.3 RESPONDENT DISTRIBUTION IN THE SURVEY REGION

Tables 5, 6 and 7 show the geographical distribution of respondents by place of residence, homeland,

and clan association respectively. The majority of the interviews were conducted in Yirrkala,

Gunyangara, Birritjimi and Gukula, which explains the distribution by residence of the survey

respondents. Yolngu mobility is not random or widespread – most people gravitate towards one or

another service hub and their movements are constrained by their kin network.9 Thus, it was possible

for the interviewers to reach cultural practitioners residing outside of the survey interview locations

(see Table 5).

Table 5. Distribution of survey respondents by residence and IARE

Place of residence IARE Count

Birritjimi Nhulunbuy - Gunyangara 10

Gunyangara Nhulunbuy - Gunyangara 7

Nhulunbuy Nhulunbuy - Gunyangara 3

Total Nhulunbuy – Gunyangara 20

Baniyala Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 1

Bukudal Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 1

Gangan Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 2

Garrthalala Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 2

Wandawuy Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 2

Total Laynhapuy - Gumatj Homelands 8

Galiwinku Marthakal Homelands - Galiwinku 1

Total Marthakal Homelands – Galiwinku 1

Gapuwiyak Gapuwiyak and Outstations 6

Total Gapuwiyak and Outstations 6

Ramingining Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations 5

Total Ramingining - Milingimbi and Outstations 5

Yirrkala Yirrkala 31

Total Yirrkala 31

Total 71

9 However, different mobility patterns occur in cases of large ceremonies, which typically attract people from across the region (Morphy 2011: 8).

16

Respondents were also asked a question about their homelands or traditional lands, which are

different from residencies. The Yolngu in East Arnhem Land associate themselves strongly with

particular homelands. The homelands play a central role in art and cultural production and in

environmental management in the region. They are also the major focus of ceremonial activities and

other activities associated with cultural maintenance for the Yolngu, even for those who usually reside

in the hub communities. Most of these homelands are occupied throughout the year, although in some

cases people move to bigger communities during the wet season and return to their homelands in the

dry (Morphy 2012: 18). As Table 6 demonstrates, the homelands of the respondents in our survey were

widely distributed.

Table 6. Distribution of survey respondents by homeland

Homeland Count Homeland Count

Gulurunga 5 Gikal 2

Wandawuy 5 Gitan 2

Yalangbara 5 Gurkawuy 2

Bawaka 4 Rorruwuy 2

Dhanaya 4 Balma 1

Garrthalala 4 Barrkira 1

Dhambaliya 3 Baygurrtji 1

Gangan 3 Cape Barrow 1

Gunyangara 3 Dhupuwamirri 1

Gurrumuru 3 Dhuruputjpi 1

Baniyala 2 Nalyindi 1

Bukudal 2 Ngaypinya 1

Dhalinybuy 2 Wugularr 1

Djarrakpi 2 Ramingining 1

Gapuwiyak 2 Yirrkala 1

Gawa 2 Yudu Yudu 1

Total

71

The social structure of Yolngu society is based on clans (or extended family groups) and moieties (the

Dhuwa or Yirritja moieties). There are more than 50 Yolngu clans in East Arnhem Land. Each clan has

its own traditional land, and dialect of the Yolngu language as well as their particular song lines and

ceremonies. Table 7 shows the composition of the survey sample by clan group.

Table 7. Distribution of survey respondents by associated clan

Clan Count Clan Count

Gumatj 17 Manggalili 2

Rirratjingu 12 Marrakulu 2

Other 7 Djambarrpuyngu 2

Djapu 5 Wangurri 1

Galpu 4 Djarrwark 1

Dhalwangu 4 Dhudi Djapu 1

Marrangu 3 Ngaymil 1

Golumala 2 Warramiri 1

Daatiwuy 2 Gupapuyngu 1

Madarrpa 2 Ganalbingu 1

Total

71

17

Overall, both the homeland and the clan distributions (Tables 6 and 7) indicate that the sample

provides an extensive geographical coverage of the region.

8. SAMPLE vs. TARGET POPULATION AND WEIGHTING ISSUES

In order to determine how representative our survey sample is of the population of the Yolngu cultural

practitioners in the East Arnhem Land region, we need to compare the sample socio-demographic

characteristics to the corresponding characteristics of the target population of adult Indigenous

Australians involved in selected cultural activities as determined above. Table 8 shows comparisons

for age and gender between the 2002 NATSISS data and the sample for our own survey. The 2002

NATSISS defined cultural practitioners as those Indigenous adults who participated in the selected

activities in “the last year”. Our survey uses a wider definition for cultural practitioners to include

those who have experience but may not currently participate in any of the cultural-economic activities.

To make a comparison between these two datasets we used the data on “practising cultural

practitioners”, i.e. those practitioners who participated in the cultural-economic activities in “the last

year” or “the last 12 months”.

Table 8. Age and gender of Indigenous people who participate in cultural activities

(percent)

Male Female

15-34

yrs (%)

35-54 yrs (%)

>55 yrs (%)

Sub-total (%)

15-34 yrs (%)

35-54 yrs (%)

>55 yrs (%)

Sub-total (%)

Total

(%)

NATSISS 23 14 6 43 30 20 7 57 100

Our sample

16 21 6 43 14 23 20 57 100

It is apparent that although the overall gender composition of our sample coincides exactly with that of

the target population, the age distributions within the genders differ. Accordingly it will be necessary

to weight our raw survey results to correct for this discrepancy. The required weights are as follows:

Male: 15-34 yrs: 1.46

35-54 yrs: 0.67

>55 yrs: 0.98

Female: 15-34 yrs: 2.11

35-54 yrs: 0.85

>55 yrs: 0.37

These weights are used throughout this report to calculate weighted responses to survey questions.

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9. MAIN RESULTS

This section provides an overview of the main survey findings as summarised in the tables below.

9.1 ACQUISITION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

In defining the cultural capital of the Yolngu in this project, we distinguish between the cultural

practitioners’ cultural knowledge on the one hand and the skills they acquire from learning and

experience on the other. Individuals use different pathways for acquiring this knowledge and these

skills.

Turning first to the acquisition of cultural knowledge, we show in Table 9 the pathways for learning

about their culture that are regarded as important, where respondents can indicate more than one. We

also show the single pathway that respondents regard as the most important one in their own case.

More than half of the respondents have acquired their cultural knowledge from several different

sources, including from family members, from clan elders, from ceremonies and from the visual and

performing art of their culture. Overwhelmingly the single pathway regarded as most important is the

traditional one whereby the cultural knowledge is passed from one generation to the next by family

members, elders and community members.

Table 9. Pathways for acquisition of cultural capital (percent of all respondents)

Cultural knowledge pathways Important

pathways10 (n=71) (%)

Most important pathway (n=71)

(%)

From family members, elders or other community members

95 85

From ceremonies 64 6

From festivals or other cultural events 44 5

From artworks, songs, stories or country 56 2

Some other way 6 2

Total - 100

In regard to gaining industry skills and experience, again the majority of the respondents (nearly three

quarters) stated that observing from/participating with family, elders or other community members

was important for them in developing those skills, as shown in Table 10. Learning on the job was also

important for more than half of respondents and nearly two in five of the interviewed cultural

practitioners believed that self-learning was important for them in gaining their industry skills. When

asked about what pathway was the most important for respondents to develop their skills in order to

participate in the arts and cultural industries, half of the respondents stated that observing

from/participating with family, elders or other community members was the most important (see

Table 10 Column 2). The second most important choice was learning on the job (14 percent).

All of the respondents had participated in formal education of some sort: 39 percent of respondents

had completed schooling to between years 6 and 11; 32 percent had completed year 12; 19 percent had

a certificate or diploma, and 10 percent had a bachelor degree or diploma. Nevertheless, formal

education was seen as an important pathway towards acquiring cultural and creative skills by only 28

percent of respondents and only 11 percent saw this as the most important.

10 Multiple responses were allowed.

19

Table 10. Pathways for gaining industry skills and experience (percent of all

respondents)

Industry skills pathways Important

pathways11 (n=71) (%)

Most important pathway (n=71)

(%)

Observing from/ participating with family, elders or other community members

72 50

Observing from/ participating with a professional, such as an art advisor, ranger or tourism operator

25 4

Workshops or short courses 28 6

Learning on the job 52 14

Self-learning 38 12

School, TAFE or university program 28 11

Some other way 3 2

Total - 100

9.2 CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Table 11 shows the range of cultural activities identified as cultural production in this study. The first

numerical column of the table indicates which of these activities respondents have ever undertaken. It

can be seen that there is a lot of experience in art and cultural industries in the region. Among the

creative artistic activities, more than four in five of the Yolngu cultural practitioners have been

previously involved in visual arts. Many Yolngu practitioners are performers, with nearly two in five

having performed or showcased their culture at some point in their lives. Almost one-third of Yolngu

cultural practitioners have been a writer/storyteller, which means that they are experienced in literary

or other professional writing and/or storytelling.

In terms of applied cultural-economic activities, nearly every Yolngu cultural practitioner is

experienced in fishing, hunting, gathering and preparing bush food, which is not surprising as most of

the Yolngu live on country and have access to the land. About two in five Yolngu practitioners are

experienced in making medicine or cosmetics. Approximately one in five practitioners have been

engaged in design and tourism at some point in their lives.

It appears, however, that cultural maintenance activities are those activities where Yolngu cultural

practitioners have the most of experience. More than two thirds of them have had experience in

environmental resource management (or caring for country); more than two in five are experienced in

translating and interpreting to/from Yolngu languages and/or cross-cultural consulting; one-third

have been a member of a Yolngu cultural board, council or committee at some time; and 20 percent

are experienced in archiving or record-keeping of historical materials related to Yolngu culture.

Virtually all of them have participated in Yolngu ceremonies.

Survey questions about current cultural-economic activities or activities undertaken “last year” were

used to identify those Yolngu cultural practitioners who are currently doing the activity and who

amongst these were being paid for it (cols 2 and 3 of Table 11). It is apparent that among all cultural

practitioners in the region, the great majority of them are currently engaged in traditional activities

such as participating in ceremonies, hunting and gathering food, and caring for country. However very

11 Multiple responses were allowed.

20

few are paid for these activities, although some are paid for caring for country if they are employed in

ranger programs. By far the most common cultural economic activity for which practitioners are

currently being paid is making Yolngu arts and crafts, underlining the significant role that the visual

arts industry plays in the economy of the region. Caring for country is another cultural activity that

provides some sort of income to every third Yolngu cultural practitioner. Tourism, interpreting/

translating/ cross-cultural consulting and Yolngu governance are also among those activities that

provide income to a relatively large proportion of cultural practitioners in the region - approximately

one in five of all survey respondents are currently being paid for providing these services.

The data in Table 11 show percentages of all survey respondents. We now turn our attention

specifically to the practitioners within each cultural activity (i.e. who have ever engaged in it) who are

currently doing it, and of these, how many are being paid. These results are shown in Table 12. We see,

for example, that 81 percent of those cultural practitioners who have ever been involved in making art

and craft are currently engaged in it, and 88 percent of the latter respondents are being paid for it.

Table 11. Cultural-economic activities undertaken by cultural practitioners (percent of

all respondents)

Proportion of all respondents (n=71) (%)

# Cultural economic activities Have ever done the activity

Currently doing the

activity

Currently being paid

for the activity

CREATIVE ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

1 Making arts or crafts 85 68 60

2 Performing music or dance/performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

38 22 15

3 Composing music 14 7 6

4 Writing or storytelling 30 12 6

5 Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio program 17 6 6

CULTURAL MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES

6 Participating in ceremonies 93 89 4

7 Caring for country 68 61 33

8 Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

45 38 22

9 Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

20 11 3

10 Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee 34 27 20

APPLIED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

11 Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food 96 85 5

12 Making design 21 10 6

13 Providing tourism services 21 19 19

14 Providing health services 14 10 6

15 Making medicine or cosmetics 37 26 11

Looking further in Table 12, we note that nearly three in five Yolngu performing artists are currently

practising. Within cultural maintenance activities, more than half of Yolngu cultural practitioners

experienced in archiving/record-keeping and four in five practitioners involved in cultural governance

are practising. Nine in ten with experience in environmental resource management are engaged in this

work, and among those with experience in translation/interpretation and cultural consulting, four in

five are also currently involved in this work. About nine in ten practitioners with experience in

providing Yolngu tourism services are currently engaged in tourism, while seven in ten practitioners

21

with experience in Yolngu health and making Yolngu medicine or cosmetics also continue their

practice.

Importantly, there is a significant pool of experienced art and cultural workers in East Arnhem Land

who are currently not engaged in work, as Table 12 demonstrates. This is particularly true for Yolngu

music composers, writers and storytellers, film/video/animation/TV or radio program makers and

designers – more than half of the Yolngu with experience in these activities are currently not engaged

in them.

Not all Yolngu who are currently involved in cultural work are paid for it. While nearly everyone

involved in provision of Yolngu tourism services, and in film, video, animation, TV and radio program-

making are paid, the situation is different in other cultural-economic activities in the region. Fewer

than half of those involved in Yolngu writing/storytelling, archiving/record-keeping, and making

Yolngu medicine or cosmetics receive payment for their work. Nearly nine in ten Yolngu visual artists

and composers are paid, with the rest doing their work without being paid. Relatively higher numbers

of designers, performers and those engaged in Yolngu cultural governance are paid – two-thirds of

designers and performers and nearly three quarters of those involved in Yolngu cultural governance

are paid. Only very few cultural practitioners receive payment for Yolngu ceremonies or fishing,

hunting, gathering or preparing bush food, as we have noted earlier.

Table 12. Proportion of practising and paid cultural practitioners (percent of those who

have ever done the activity and those who are currently doing the activity)

Proportion of those who

have ever done the activity (%)

Proportion of those who are currently doing the

activity (%)

# Cultural economic activities Currently doing the

activity

Not currently doing the

activity

Currently being paid

for the activity

Not currently

being paid for the activity

CREATIVE ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

1 Making arts or crafts 81 19 88 12

2 Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

58 42 67 33

3 Composing music 48 52 86 14

4 Writing or storytelling 40 60 47 53

5 Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio program 37 63 100 0

CULTURAL MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES

6 Participating in ceremonies 96 4 4 96

7 Caring for country 90 10 55 45

8 Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

83 17 57 43

9 Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

54 46 24 76

10 Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

81 19 72 28

APPLIED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

11 Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food 88 12 6 94

12 Making design 45 55 66 34

13 Providing tourism services 90 10 97 3

14 Providing health services 70 30 58 42

15 Making medicine or cosmetics 70 30 42 58

22

9.3 TIME ALLOCATION

In this and following section we focus attention on the individual cultural activities, and we present

data for those cultural practitioners who are currently engaged in that activity. Thus the percentages

shown in these tables are the proportions of those currently engaged in the activity, not of all

respondents.

The regularity of engagement in cultural-economic activities and working time allocation strategies

deployed by the Yolngu cultural practitioners are summarised in Table 13. In some activities certain

patterns emerge. For example, the activities in which the majority of cultural practitioners engaged in

the activity are working full-time (or “nearly every day”) are film/video/animation/ radio and TV

program-making, and providing Yolngu health services.

Table 13. Time spent on cultural-economic activities (percent of those currently engaged

in the selected cultural-economic activities)

# Cultural-economic activities

Nearly every day (%)

Nearly every week (%)

Nearly every

month(%)

Every other

month (%)

Not very often/

incidentally (%)

Total

(%)

CREATIVE ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

1 Making arts or crafts 39 16 30 3 12 100

2 Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

0 0 31 28 41 100

3 Composing music 36 44 0 20 0 100

4 Writing or storytelling 28 4 34 29 4 100

5 Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio program

52 48 0 0 0 100

CULTURAL MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES

6 Participating in ceremonies 3 4 41 41 12 100

7 Caring for country 72 5 12 5 7 100

8 Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

44 10 14 14 18 100

9 Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

26 9 65 0 0 100

10 Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

16 10 53 7 14 100

APPLIED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

11 Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food

21 55 16 2 7 100

12 Making design 46 20 10 0 24 100

13 Providing tourism services 5 10 11 62 12 100

14 Providing health services 58 12 24 0 5 100

15 Making medicine or cosmetics 29 9 19 0 43 100

23

Part-time and casual work is also important for some activities. The majority of Yolngu cultural

practitioners fish, hunt, gather or prepare bush food on a “nearly every week” basis (equivalent of part-

time). Activities where cultural practitioners work predominantly on a casual basis, such as those done

“nearly every month” or “every other month”, are archiving/ record-keeping and being on a Yolngu

cultural board, committee or council. Three in five of the Yolngu cultural practitioners involved in

tourism are also engaged casually on an “every other month” basis, reflecting the seasonality of the

industry. Likewise cultural practitioners are also regularly engaged in ceremonies, with four in five

spending between “nearly every month” and “every other month” on ceremonies.

The majority of Yolngu writers and storytellers as well as performing artists work on a casual basis;

however, more than a quarter of the Yolngu writers/ storytellers are engaged full-time and two in five

of performers perform only incidentally. The Yolngu working in the visual arts, music composing,

design, interpretation/ translation and cultural consulting, as well as in making Yolngu medicine and

cosmetics, do not seem to have any particular pattern in their allocation of working time, with some

working full-time, some part-time and some only being engaged occasionally in these activities.

9.4 INCOME FROM CULTURAL PRODUCTION

We saw in Table 12 that the great majority (well over 80 percent) of cultural practitioners currently

engaged in making art and craft, composing music or providing tourism services were being paid for

their activity. But this does not mean that these activities provided the main income of these

practitioners. Table 14 shows the importance of each activity as an income source for those currently

being paid for it. It can be seen that in fact only a quarter of composers, about a third of visual artists

and only 5 percent of those working in tourism see payments from these activities as their main

income. For seven in ten of Yolngu working in tourism, the industry provides only incidental income.

Those activities that provide the main income for the largest proportion of practitioners are: making

film/video/animation/TV or radio programs; environmental resource management (such as ranger

work); providing health services; and making medicine and cosmetics. For three in five of the small

number of those who receive payment from fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food, this is

also their main income. For four in five Yolngu paid for their involvement in cultural governance, this

work provides only extra income. The majority of Yolngu performing artists who receive payment for

their work see this income as incidental, with only one in five seeing this income as their main income.

Participating in ceremonies is another low-income activity in the region.

In the survey respondents who had received payment for the various cultural activities were asked how

payment was received – was it from salary or wages? an hourly rate? a fixed sum payment? and so on.

Most of the practitioners engaged in the creative arts were paid on a fixed sum basis, e.g. on the sale of

artworks, or as a performer at tourist events. The same applied to those serving on boards who

received a fixed payment for their participation. In some activities cultural practitioners were

employed full- or part-time and as such received their income from these activities in the form of

salaries and wages, for example, those engaged as rangers or translators/interpreters. Responses to a

question as to the sources of payments indicated the importance of not-for-profit organisations or

community-controlled Aboriginal corporations such as art centres in providing income for cultural

practitioners in the region.

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Table 14. Type of income earned from cultural-economic activities (percent of those

currently engaged in the selected cultural-economic activities)

# Cultural-economic activities Main

income (%)

Extra income

(%)

Incidental income

(%)

Total

(%)

CREATIVE ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

1 Making arts or crafts 35 36 29 100

2 Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

20 28 52 100

3 Composing music 25 35 40 100

4 Writing or storytelling 31 43 26 100

5 Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio program

100 0 0 100

CULTURAL MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES

6 Participating in ceremonies 0 0 100 100

7 Caring for country 70 9 21 100

8 Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

30 39 31 100

9 Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

42 38 20 100

10 Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

10 82 8 100

APPLIED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

11 Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food

63 26 11 100

12 Making design 37 15 48 100

13 Providing tourism services 5 24 70 100

14 Providing health services 84 0 16 100

15 Making medicine or cosmetics 70 0 30 100

9.5 CAREER PATTERNS

Looking back over their working lives earning money from cultural production, respondents were

asked when they started out, i.e. how long they had been engaged in the various activities for payment.

Table 15 shows the career patterns for the six most prominent activities. It is clear that the creative arts

activities have been a possible source of income for Yolngu artists for some time, with the majority

having been doing these activities for payment for most or all of their lives. The more recent

availability of activities such as interpreting/translating, board membership, or engagement with the

tourist industry is broadly indicated by the data. Caring for country is an interesting anomaly. Most of

the Yolngu have been engaged in this activity for a long period, but being paid for it is a more recent

phenomenon – only one quarter of them currently being paid for it have been receiving payment for

most or all of their adult lives, and most of these are relatively young.

25

Table 15. Length of time activities have been done for payment (percent of those

currently paid in each activity)

Cultural economic activities Just started in

the last year (%)

Doing it for a few years

(%)

Most or all of (adult) life

(%)

Total

(%)

Making arts or crafts 34 27 39 100

Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

10 - 90 100

Caring for country 33 42 25 100

Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

7 60 33 100

Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

7 50 43 100

Providing tourism services 36 50 14 100

Survey respondents being paid for cultural work were asked whether they would like to take on more

or less such work, or whether they were happy with their current level of engagement. Table 16 shows

the proportions favouring these different alternatives in the six most prominent activities. Although

there is some variation between the activities, the predominant view across the six activities is a

preference for the status quo. Nevertheless there are significant numbers who would prefer more;

around half of visual artists, for example, would like to undertake more work in their particular

cultural activity.

When those cultural practitioners who would like to extend their work in activities for which they are

currently receiving payment were asked what stopped them from doing so, the main reasons

nominated by creative artists had to do with time availability – family obligations, the demands of

other work, and so on. For example about one-third of visual artists in this category nominated “no

time” or “family obligations” as the obstacle to their taking on more work, even though they had a

preference for doing so. It is noteworthy that a number of visual artists said that they didn’t know how

to contact people who would pay for their work; presumably these are artists who pursue opportunities

outside the art centre system.

In other categories of cultural activity, it appears that work not being available is a barrier to cultural

practitioners wishing to take on more. This problem affects cultural practitioners wanting to take on

more work in the tourism industry, as well as those wishing for more caring-for-country work.

As we have seen in earlier sections, a number of Yolngu cultural practitioners engage in cultural

activities without being paid. The main reasons indicated by respondents as to why they undertook

these unpaid activities had to do with cultural obligations, family responsibilities, passing on

knowledge to others, and feelings related to identity and commitment to others. These reasons were

particularly prominent in explaining unpaid participation in ceremonies, caring for country, and

fishing, hunting and food gathering. In the latter case, the simple fact of enjoyment was cited by many

as sufficient reason for engaging in this activity.

Some Yolngu cultural practitioners have stopped working in an activity in which they have been active

in earlier years. Almost always the reason given is the lack of time and demands of other work. Such

other work in some cases is a different cultural activity; so, for example, a practitioner who once

composed music may have moved to film making, or someone who once served on a board may now

have moved to a creative practice. In other cases, work that is not directly related to cultural practice is

a reason for cultural practitioners to stop their cultural activity. This also demonstrates the diversity of

26

employment strategies that people in the region deploy in order to cope with seasonality, market

changes and changes on government policies and associated funding.

Table 16. Preferences for more or less paid work (percent of those currently paid in each

activity)

Cultural economic activities Prefer more

(%)

Prefer about the same

(%)

Prefer less

(%)

Total

(%)

Making arts or crafts 52 43 5 100

Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

27 55 18 100

Caring for country 30 61 9 100

Interpreting or translating from/ to languages or cultural consulting

27 73 - 100

Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

47 38 15 100

Providing tourism services 46 54 - 100

9.6 NON-CULTURAL WORK

Finally, respondents were asked whether in the last year they had other paid work, i.e. outside the

cultural sector. About one-third of respondents had had another paid job last year in areas including

teaching, labouring, working in a shop, community and social services, and so on. This work was

undertaken nearly every day and comprised the main income for these people. Roughly two-thirds of

them received this income as a full-time salary, the remainder being paid on an hourly, casual or part-

time basis.

10. CONCLUSIONS

In this report we have discussed the rationale for undertaking a survey of cultural practitioners in East

Arnhem Land, we have described in detail the conduct of the research, and we have presented the

principal results. The raw data that are tabulated in this report are being analysed and the implications

of our findings will be discussed in subsequent publications. For now we can simply conclude by

outlining the overall picture that emerges from this study.

It is clear that the rich endowment of cultural capital, both tangible and intangible, that exists in the

East Arnhem Land region is the basis for a very wide range of cultural activity that yields both cultural

and economic value. The 2002 NATSISS data allow for estimation of a population of over one

thousand cultural practitioners in the region, or about one-quarter of the Indigenous adult population.

These cultural practitioners engage in a variety of forms of cultural activity including the production of

artistic goods and services, cultural maintenance and various applied cultural activities. Most of these

activities have yielded monetary reward in one form or another, although there appears to be scope for

improvement in the economic circumstances in which cultural production takes place, especially in

regard to the levels and regularity of incomes that cultural practitioners receive.

Throughout this work the strength of the cultural foundations upon which Yolngu society is built has

been emphasised. We have noted the fundamental role played by intergenerational cultural

transmission, not only in endowing cultural practitioners with the knowledge and skills that they draw

upon in their work, but also in motivating them in allocating their time between their cultural

responsibilities and obligations and their production of work for the market. It is clear that art and

cultural production does indeed offer considerable potential for contributing to the regional economy

in a manner that also enhances cultural sustainability and resilience.

27

REFERENCES

Acker, Tim and Alice Woodhead (2015a). Remote Australia Online Art Atlas: Art Financials. Online

dataset.

http://nintione.com.au/sites/default/files/resource/atlas/Art_Atlas_Financials/atlas.html (14

April 2015).

Acker, Tim and Alice Woodhead (2015b). Remote Australia Online Art Atlas: Artworks and Artists.

Online dataset.

http://nintione.com.au/sites/default/files/resource/atlas/Art_Atlas_Artworks/atlas.html (14 April

2015).

Altman, Jon, (1982), “Maningrida outstations: A preliminary economic overview” in E.A. Young and

E.K. Fisk (eds), Small Rural Communities. Canberra: Australian National University, Development

Studies Centre, pp. 1–42.

Altman, Jon (1989). The Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Industry, Canberra: Australian Government

Publishing Service.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2006). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians:

Involvement in Arts and Culture, 2001 and 2002. Cat. no. 4721.0.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2015). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social

Survey (NATSISS). http://www.abs.gov.au/NATSISS (9 March 2015).

Berndt, Ronald and Catherine Berndt (1954). Arnhem Land: its history and its people. Melbourne:

Cheshire.

Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) (2015). Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Art Economies Project outputs and publications. http://crc-

rep.com/research/enterprise-development/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-art-

economies/project-outputs (28 April 2015).

Morphy, Howard (2005). “Mutual conversion — the Methodist Church and the Yolngu with particular

reference to Yirrkala.” Humanities Research 12(1): 41-53.

Morphy, Howard (2007). Becoming Art: Exploring Cross-cultural Categories. Oxford: Berg.

Morphy, Howard and David Throsby (2015). “Cultural Assets and Economic Opportunity in Aboriginal

Tourism: the Case of the Yolngu People in East Arnhem Land” unpublished paper.

Morphy, Frances (2011). Hunters and Collectors: Data Gathering in North East Arnhem Land with a

Yolngu Workforce. (Report to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the ABS523 North East

Arnhem Population Project). Canberra: Australian National University, Centre for Aboriginal

Economic Policy Research.

Morphy, Frances (2012). The Yolŋu in Place: Designing a Population Survey for North East Arnhem

Land. Canberra: Australian National University, Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements

Project

Ngurra Kuju Walyja — One Country One People — The Canning Stock Route Project. Project official

website. http://www.canningstockrouteproject.com/ (6 December 2014).

Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC). (2012). At the Heart of Art and the Art

Centre Story: A Snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations in the Visual Arts

Sector. Woden: Commonwealth of Australia.

Throsby, David and Anita Zednik (2010). Do You Really Expect to Get Paid? An Economic Study of

Professional Artists in Australia. Sydney: Australia Council for the Arts.

28

APPENDIX 1: CONSENT FORM

I have read, or had the information sheet explained to me, and I fully understand the nature of The

Remote Aboriginal Cultural Practitioners Survey and its likely outcomes. I have chosen to participate

with full consent.

a) I understand that participation is voluntary and that I can withdraw any time during the interview. I

understand that if I withdraw, I can ask researchers not to use anything I have contributed to this

survey.

b) I understand that because the information is unidentifiable, after completing the interview and

submitting it, I would not be able to withhold my permission to use the information I provided in the

survey.

c) I acknowledge that the researchers have explained to me how my information may be used in the

survey. I give consent for my information to be used in the survey: (Yes/No)

29

APPENDIX 2: GARMA FESTIVAL

In 2014, the Garma Festival was held between 1st and 4th of August, at Gurkula (approximately 30

kilometres from Nhulunbuy), which is its usual location. The research team were collecting interviews

at Gurkula from Thursday July 31st until Tuesday August 5th. We liaised with the Festival organisers

well in advance of the festival to obtain permission from the festival to conduct the survey during

Garma. The research team also had a Garma Expo stall and had an opportunity to present the survey

project to the Garma guests as part of the festival program. A one-page flyer about the survey in

English was also produced specifically for the festival to spread information during the festival (see

Figure 2.1).

Fig. 2.1: Garma Festival 2015 Remote Indigenous Cultural Practitioners Survey flyer

30

The social geography of Garma site is socially complex. The major encampment of local Yolngu

includes those who are engaged in cultural workshops and dance performance, and of some groups

from further afield who are also there as performers. Somewhat separated from the main encampment

is the area where the members of the landowning clan and their families have their camp. Local

Yolngu, visiting community performers and paying guests from elsewhere in Australia and overseas all

intermingle. This makes the task of identifying the target population difficult. Moreover, the festival

takes place over a short period of time, thus, opportunities for counting are limited. Local Yolngu also

come and leave the festival site during the day or sometimes stay over one or two nights with relatives

who are camping there for the duration. Most people were away from their tents for most of the day

and in the evening most of them were engaged in performance (either participating or being the

audience). All these also reduced opportunities for conducting the interviews.

31

APPENDIX 3: YOLNGU CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

CONCORDANCE BETWEEN YOLNGU CULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW

ZEALAND STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION (ANZSIC)

Yolngu cultural activities

Division – Subdivision Group - Class

CREATIVE ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

Making arts or crafts R Arts and Recreation Services - 90 Creative and Performing Arts Activities

900 Creative and Performing Arts Activities - 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers

Composing music R Arts and Recreation Services - 90 Creative and Performing Arts Activities

900 Creative and Performing Arts Activities - 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers

Writing or storytelling R Arts and Recreation Services - 90 Creative and Performing Arts Activities

900 Creative and Performing Arts Activities - 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers

Performing music or dance/ performing in theatre or film/ choreographing dance

R Arts and Recreation Services - 90 Creative and Performing Arts Activities

900 Creative and Performing Arts Activities - 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers

Making a film, video, animation, TV or radio programme

J Information Media and Telecommunications – 55 Motion Picture and Sound Recording Activities

551 Motion Picture and Video Activities – 5511 Motion Picture and Video Production; 5514 Post-production Services and Other Motion Picture and Video Activities 552 Sound Recording and Music Publishing – 5521 Music Publishing; 5522 Music and Other Sound Recording Activities

CULTURAL MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES

Participating in ceremonies

S Other Services - 95 Personal and Other Services

954 Religious Services - 9540 Religious Services

Archiving or record-keeping of stories or historical materials

J Information Media and Telecommunications – 60 Library and Other Information Services R Arts and Recreation Services - 89 Heritage Activities

601 Libraries and Archives - Libraries and Archives; 891 Museum Operation - 8910 Museum Operation

Being a member of a cultural board, council or committee

O Public Administration and Safety - 75 Public Administration12

751 Central Government Administration – 7510 Central Government Administration; 752 State Government Administration - 7520 State Government Administration; 753 Local Government Administration – 7530 Local Government Administration

Interpreting or translating from/ to Yolngu languages or cultural consulting

M Professional, Scientific and Technical Services - 69 Professional, Scientific And Technical Services (Except Computer System Design And Related Services)

699 Other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services - 6999 Other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services n.e.c.

12 Excluding the management of commercial and business activities or activities other than central, state or local government administration are included in the classes appropriate to these activities.

32

Yolngu cultural activities

Division – Subdivision Group - Class

APPLIED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

Fishing, hunting, gathering or preparing bush food

A Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing - 04 Fishing, Hunting and Trapping

041 Fishing; 042 Hunting and Trapping

Caring for country R Arts and Recreation Services Subdivision - 89 Heritage Activities

892 Parks and Gardens Operations - 8922 Nature Reserves and Conservation Parks Operation

Providing tourism services

N Administrative and Support Services - 72 Administrative Services

722 Travel Agency and Tour Arrangement Services - 7220 Travel Agency and Tour Arrangement Services

Providing health services Q Health Care and Social Assistance - 85 Medical and Other Health Care Services

851 Medical Services – 8512 Specialist Medical Services 859 Other Health Care Services – 8599 Other Health Care Services n.e.c.

Making medicine or cosmetics

C Manufacturing - 18 Basic Chemical and Chemical Product Manufacturing

184 Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Product Manufacturing – 1841 Human Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Product Manufacturing

Making design M Professional, Scientific and Technical Services - 69 Professional, Scientific And Technical Services (Except Computer System Design And Related Services)

692 Architectural, Engineering and Technical Services - 6924 Other Specialised Design Services

33

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We acknowledge the collaboration throughout this project of our colleagues from the Australian

National University, Professor Howard Morphy and Dr Marianne Riphagen. We also greatly

appreciate the energy, time and advice contributed by Frances Morphy in assisting us in the design

and implementation of the survey.

We would like to thank our core team of Yolngu consultants - Dhanggal Gurruwiwi, Joseph Neparrnga

Gumbula, Yananymul Mununggurr and Waka Mununggurr - who provided us with invaluable insights

about the regional art and cultural production and helped us in cross-cultural interpretation of the

survey concepts.

We also acknowledge the work of our team of survey interviewers and translators/interpreters -

Rarriwuy Marika, Wayalwanga Marika and Phillip Marika.

In addition, we express our gratitude to the following people for their support at different stages of the

project:

Will Stubbs, Kade McDonald, Wukun Wanambi and Randjupi Yunupingu from the Buku

Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre

Joseph Brady, Ishmael Marika and Bec Charlesworth from the Mulka Project

Dave Preece from Yirralka Rangers

Steve Roeger and Greg Wearne from Dhimurru Rangers

Matt Grooby, Waka Mununggurr and Djawa (Timmy) Burarrwanga from Lirrwi Tourism

Djawa Yunupingu from the Yothu Yindi Foundation

Christina Davidson from the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists

Denise Bowden from the Garma Festival

Djapirri Mununggirritj, Maryclaire Milikins and Anne Enchong from the Department of the

Prime Minister and Cabinet, Yirrkala

Sarah Bentley and Jeremy Kee from the Miwatj Employment Project

Dhalulu Ganambarr-Stubbs from the Yirrkala School

Leon White from the Yirrkala Homelands School

Staff members of the Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation.

Finally, we would like to thank all the Yolngu participants who took part in the survey interviews and

the pilot testing in 2014. Their patience and willingness to contribute to telling the story of Yolŋu Rom

Djäma or cultural production in East Arnhem Land is greatly appreciated.

Work published in the Macquarie Economics Research Papers series is written by members or

affilitates of the Department of Economics, Macquarie University. Although not refereed, the papers

are under the review and supervision of an editorial board.

Editorial Board

David Throsby (Chair)

Tony Bryant

Chris Heaton

Roselyne Joyeux

Sean Turnell

Editorial Assistant

Laura Billington

Views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Economics, Macquarie University.

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