'Not Just Pretty Pictures': Relative Autonomy and the Articulations of Yolngu Art in its Contexts

This paper explores the utility of the concept of relative autonomy in understanding the ways in which the Yolngu people of Eastern Arnhem Land in northern Australia have used art as a mode of action. Yolngu are aware of the different properties of their visual and performing arts and the ways in which art can be used in different contexts. The context of use, including engagement with the colonial ‘other’, contributes to maintaining its diversity and its potential as a form of acting in the world. In the contemporary context Yolngu do not have any sense that they have lost control of their art or reduced their capacity to produce it. Relative autonomy needs to be seen as a principle of action as well as an analytic concept. As a principle of action it concerns the capacity of human beings to both separate phenomena in space and time and be aware of their interconnections.