Melbourne, Australia

“Respectful depiction and referencing of Indigenous visual iconography has become an important issue around the world—especially when designers and their clients choose to visually represent national identity. This new emphasis on cultural authenticity raises ethical issues of appropriate engagement and knowledge ownership.”

On 9 August 2012, Russell Kenedy will give a talk entitled ‘Appropriate or Appropriate? Strategic considerations when representing Indigenous culture in communication design and branding’ at The Museum Theatre/Melbourne Museum (full information here). He will speak on the need for the design profession to establish a framework of engagement with Indigenous knowledge, which will educate and inform practitioners on issues relating to cultural ownership and respectful development processes. He believes a dedicated policy in this area will help facilitate the transition to an authentic national identity, one that celebrates Australia as the home of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

My good friend Russell Kennedy is a Research Fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) and a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). He was Chair of the International Design Alliance (2009- 2011) and is currently serving as immediate Past President (2011-2013) of Icograda, the International Council of Communication Design and is Co-Chair of INDIGO, the International Network of Indigenous Design.

The poster design shown above is entitled “Peace Roo” (done for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games) and is by another Aussie friend, David Lancashire.