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Harry paints his way into outback row
Prince accused of stealing Aboriginal motifs in his art

Peter Shadbolt in Sydney and Peter Collins in Perth

19 August 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - In terms of cultural distances, they don't come much greater than Buckingham Palace and the deserts of Western Australia. But Prince Harry has unwittingly put the two worlds on a collision course with his Aboriginal-inspired A-level artworks, unveiled earlier this year as part of his 18th birthday portraits.

The images flew around the world. They may have sparked admiration at home, but by the time they reached the Aboriginal communities that had inspired them, that admiration had turned to anger. With a sense of cultural understanding worthy of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Harry - due to spend his gap year in Australia later this year - has offended Aboriginal people before he has set foot in the country.

Some of Australia's best-known Aboriginal artists have recently become aware of the prince's paintings of lizard motifs and claim he has stolen their culture. That the artworks have been valued at £15,000 each has compounded the insult to poor desert communities.

"He needs to get down here and see where it [the lizard symbol] came from," said Julie Dowling, who is among the top five contemporary urban Aboriginal artists. "He needs to figure out where that image came from, he needs to follow it back," she added, saying the lizard symbol had totemic significance in at least seven Aboriginal regions and many clans.

"What he has to realise is that when he does that, he's ripping off another family. His grandmother is the head of his church, he should show respect for other people's religions."

Prince Harry has wandered into one of the most contentious new issues in Aboriginal communities - the problem of intellectual property rights over cultural works sold in an unregulated market.

Buckingham Palace said the paintings do not "purport to be an Aboriginal piece of work. We haven't received any formal complaints and it's never been the intention of the prince to cause any offence."

Downing pointed to the work of Turkey Tolson, who sold a painting for $2,000 (then around £750) just before he died in 2001. The work was resold in 2002 for $500,000. "We're talking about an amazing piece of cultural heritage - it was a complex piece that said a lot of things - that just went overseas," Dowling said.

Such stories have sparked a new kind of Aboriginal activism, with Robert Eggington, of the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation, investigating alleged cases of cultural exploitation.

"When we see our symbols - important symbols for us that represent lightning, stars and waterways and other important religious entities - being used on underwear or toilet seat covers, it can be very disappointing. The only thing we've got left is our culture and when we see this it strips our work of its integrity and its dignity," he said.

"There is a world demand for Aboriginal art but unfortunately people sometimes buy works to go with their carpets or curtains. When you see people mimicking our culture, for instance people playing a didgeridoo as if it were a toy, it's very offensive."

Mr Eggington took elders from his Bardi clan, based in Western Australia, to Hollywood to confront author Marlo Morgan, who claimed to have gone walkabout in the outback with a primitive tribe, but whose book was later relabelled as fiction.

The book, Mutant Messages Down Under, a pastiche of Aboriginal lore that paid scant heed to anthropological veracity, became a hit in the late 1990s, rocketing on to the bestseller list with the endorsement of media stars such as Oprah Winfrey.

Mr Eggington travelled across the outback but could not find Aboriginal people who could corroborate Morgan's story.

Anne Loxley, a Sydney-based curator specialising in Aboriginal art, said she expects a large test case about indigenous intellectual property in the near future.

"With the law going the way it is, even Prince Harry could spark something off," she said, adding that the prince had made the fatal error of appreciating the Aboriginal works for their aesthetic value alone.

"You might be able to defend him on the grounds that he was copying one of the great masters and brushing up his technique. But there's no way you can do that with the abstractions of contemporary Aboriginal art.

"At best his work is quaint but misinformed, at worst it's really quite regrettable. Considering how well known Aboriginal art is, and the presence it has on the modern art scene, you'd hope that one of the world's most prestigious schools would have better informed art teachers."

Royals with a taste for the arts

• Prince Charles
  Has been a keen painter since the mid-1980s because he felt an "overwhelming urge" to express what he saw with watercolours. The paintings mainly depict natural landscapes but he has said that he does not think they are much good. In 2001 he won a special award at the the Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art
• Prince Albert
  Had a keen appreciation of painting and was one of the first collectors in Britain to buy so-called primitive Italian and German painting. Through the crown jeweller Garrard, he designed many gifts for his wife and family. He also had a keen interest in architecture and was behind the building of the Royal Albert Hall, which was completed after his death
• Henry VIII
  Was said to be a great music lover and composed many songs and hymns, possibly including Greensleeves, though many historians dispute this. He also wrote poetry and was a skilled lute player.

'Prince Harry stole our Aboriginal motif'

August 19 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - London - Prince Harry stands accused of "stealing" motifs from Australian Aborigines for the artworks he presented recently at the end of his final year at the elite Eton College near London.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday the 18-year-old prince, who is due to visit Australia during his "gap year", had unwittingly offended Aboriginal artists by his use of a lizard motif.

"He needs to get down here and see where it came from," Julie Dowling, a recognised urban Aboriginal artist, said.

"He needs to figure out where that image came from, he needs to follow it back," she added, saying the lizard symbol had totemic significance in at least seven Aboriginal regions and many clans.

'At best his work is quaint but misinformed'

"What he has to realise is that when he does that, he's ripping off another family. His grandmother is the head of his church, he should show respect for other people's religions," Dowling said.

Buckingham Palace responded that the paintings do not "purport to be an Aboriginal piece of work. We haven't received any formal complaints and it's never been the intention of the prince to cause any offence".

Anne Loxley, a Sydney-based curator specialising in Aboriginal art, told the Guardian she expected a test case about indigenous intellectual property in the near future.

"With the law going the way it is, even Prince Harry could spark something off," she said.

"At best his work is quaint but misinformed, at worst it's really quite regrettable. Considering how well known Aboriginal art is, and the presence it has on the modern art scene, you'd hope that one of the world's most prestigious schools would have better informed art teachers," she said.

Harry has shown little intellectual prowess, passing his A-level exams this summer with little distinction, but his abilities with paint brush have been applauded. He follows in the footsteps of his father, Prince Charles, who is an accomplished watercolourist.

Prince Harry branded a cultural thief

20 August 2003 - SYDNEY (Reuters) - A leading Australian Aboriginal has branded Prince Harry a cultural thief for stealing Aboriginal symbols and images in his paintings.

"This is more than just about copyright. It is cultural theft," said Rodney Dillon, culture commissioner with the peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

Prince Harry showed a series of Aboriginal-style paintings earlier this year following his 18th birthday and has said he is interested in the dot paintings of outback desert Aborigines.

"They (England) has been stealing things from us for years, they stole our land...they stole our remains, now they are stealing this," Dillon told Reuters.

"How much more can England take off Aboriginal people?"

Dillon said Prince Harry, who is due to visit Australia in November, should go to the outback and sit down in the dirt and talk to Aborigines about their symbols.

Dillon said Aborigines understood Prince Harry was only young and may not realise the importance of the symbols he paints.

"He is only a young fella. He does need to be cut a bit of rope (given some latitude), but what he needs to understand is that this is very important to Aboriginal people," he said.

Source: Daily Mirror

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