Aboriginal Art, Identity and Appropriation

Elizabeth Burns Coleman lectures in Moral and Political Philosophy at La Trobe University, Australia. She has held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University's Centre for Cross Cultural Research. She has lectured in aesthetics at the Australian National University, and published articles on cross cultural aesthetics and the ethical and political aspects of art, including appropriation, forgery, the use of nom de plume, and plagiarism.

• Contents: Series Editors' preface; Mapping the problem; Cultural appropriation; Culture and property; Domestic questions; Identity and images; Religion and significance; Art fraud and the ontology of painting; Applying the criteria for authenticity; Insignia and collective entities; Cultural vandalism; Interpreting Aboriginal claims as rights; Freedom of expression and insignia; Responding to Aboriginal claims; Bibliography; Index.

’This is an excellent and highly original book. It is written with verve and has a strong sense of direction that engages the reader in its argument. The issues of appropriation copyright and intellectual property in the context of the rights of Indigenous people have been major topics of concern in a number of disciplines including art history, law and anthropology. They have also been major topics of public debate and political and legal action. This book contributes in a balanced and original way to the debate and should enable a number of complex issues that are often entangled to be separated out and approached in a logical manner. It makes a major contribution to the philosophical interrogation of social theory.’ Howard Morphy, Australian National University, Australia 'Coleman's analysis highlights areas of ambiguity in copyright law and shortcomings in our understanding of intellectual property law. She argues that copyright law in its current form is not the right medium for the protection of Aboriginal art...Within the existing literature Coleman's thesis that Aboriginal art is insignia is very original and a valuable contribution to the debate on matters of Aboriginal art, identity and appropriation.' Australian Aboriginal Studies