Build Relationships Before Starting Work

True Tracks

Award-winning Meriam/Wuthathi lawyer Dr Terri Janke draws on twenty years of professional experience to outline respectful and ethical engagement with Indigenous knowledges and cultures and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. Includes the ten True Tracks principles:
* Respect
* Self-Determination
* Consent & Consultation
* Interpretation
* Integrity
* Secrecy & Privacy
* Attribution
* Benefit Sharing
* Maintaining Indigenous Cultures
* Recognition & Protection

Indigenous Cultural Protocols and the Arts

Case studies in multiple art forms of how arts organisations have implemented the landmark Creative Australia Indigenous Protocols, developed in 2002 to ensure Indigenous culture is used ethically and legally with appropriate consultation and consent, according to both Australian copyright law and Indigenous cultural protocols.

Includes question prompts for developing project methodology to ensure respect and consent when making art that draws on another community's culture.

How To Co-Create: Practical Lessons From The Field

Co-creation can be misused, and the various risks that come with co-creation are explored in this guide. Alongside this are tips for using ethical methods that can help to reap the benefits of shared power and authorship. This guide warns against generic solutions, stating that local, societal factors must always be taken into account.

Partner Power

This 'Technique for Building More Authentic Community Partnerships Right from the Start' offers a model of consultation and collaboration used by the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in the US to build an exhibition in collaboration with the community. Includes a video on conducting a meeting and worksheet with sample questions, using active listening and open-ended questions.

“It felt more equal...rather than appearing as though we were just trying to tick a box on community engagement.”

Gauging Readiness for Partnership

Designed for local US municipalities working with artists in general, this one-page checklist offers a good self-assessment on issues such as compromise, disruption to usual practices and equitable compensation.

"Use these questions to help gauge if you and your potential partner are ready to work together. Ask these early on in the process."

Mulatu Astatke at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival

Ethiopian muso Mulatu Astatke, the ‘father of Ethio-Jazz’, is a living legend with a huge global fan base. When the Melbourne International Jazz Festival invited Astatke to perform in 2016, it saw an opportunity to engage with Melbourne’s 7000-strong Ethiopian community. The strategy involved
* Research into the local Ehiopian community
* High-profile community allies
* Safe spaces for the community
* African media outreach
* Discount group tix

Collaboration with Greek-Australian communities

The British Museum’s controversial collections include the Parthenon Sculptures, or Marbles, taken in 1804 by Thomas Bruce (also known as Lord Elgin) from the Parthenon with the collusion of the Ottoman colonial rulers of Greece and the museum has refused to repatriate them.

When Canberra’s National Museum of Australia (NMA) planned to exhibit 170 Ancient Greek art works housed at the British Museum, they knew they needed the support of the Greek community in Australia. Here's how the did it.

Chapter excerpt from The Relationship is the Project

A good primer on "community-engaged practice" and ways to think about working with people in communities and building relationships without gatekeeping.

This book is published in Australia and this chapter excerpt has be posted by the UK based organisation Co-Creating Change

The Relationship is the Project: Working with Communities (Audiences and Cultural Diversity)

Cultural diversity of audiences is as significant as diversity on stage. This chapter examines the importance and use multicultural media as a vital communication tool for diverse audiences.

Building relationships with people new to the arts

Tips and approaches to building relationships with people who don't see themselves as arts attenders. This resource was produced to support a Creative People and Places National Peer Learning and Communications Programme panel session 'Defining relevance' at the Arts Marketing Association conference 2016.

Preserving indigenous heritage and showcasing the arts of the Agta people

The Agtas are the aboriginal Filipinos who have been driven out of their lands to live on mountain tops and far-flung lakeshores. The Savage Mind Bookshop and its offshoot, Kamarin Art Gallery, have reached out to the Agta people of Lake Buhi to provide a means for them to create art, preserve their language and history, and ensure that their heritage and culture are not erased by the country’s rapid industrialisation.

The art-ivism of Malaysia’s Pangrok Sulap

Pangrok Sulap is an art collective which engages with a diverse range of performers, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the public in their art-ivism. This group is famously known for creating woodcut prints to tell the unknown stories of Sabah’s rural community, helping to preserve rural culture and traditions as well as amplifying calls for environmental protection, democracy and human rights.

Embracing diversity through food in multicultural Malaysia

In Malaysia, Arts-ED’s ‘You Think You Can Masak’ (‘Cook’) program bring together young people to learn about their own, their friends’ and their community’s cultural beliefs and practices through food.

"One of the program’s main goals was to highlight the similarities, not just the differences, in the variety of dishes and cooking styles through shared ingredients."