"How many people still think that up north or in the centre is the only place for real Aboriginal art. You know when you work with it, selling it, buying it, you hear it all the time."
Hello. My name is Marshall Bell. I live at Inala in Queensland. My father was from the famous Jiman Tribe of Hornet Hill massacre mob. My mother was from the Kamilaroi nation Gunedah/Kooma clans. I was born at the now defunct Charleville Aboriginal reserve in the desert of south west Queensland. Having been living off my art for the last 5 years in a suppressive Queensland environment, I think I know what it is like to be living in isolation.
It's now early September 1989 and Aboriginal Rock Bands from the Northern Territory and interstate are travelling by any means possible to Darwin for the Sing Loud Play Strong 2nd Festival of Aboriginal Rock Music.
In the 1940s the name Albert Namatjira became a household word and the skill of this Arrernte artist brought the vivid colours and beauty of the central Australian landscape into the galleries and living rooms of Australia. He and other painters who lived around Hermannsburg mission and in Alice Springs came to be known as the Arrernte watercolour school.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Education Centre in Cairns is a vocational school of Arts aimed at the development and realisation of Aboriginal artistic talent.