Waringarri Aboriginal Arts: Rethinking practices in conservation documentation through assessing the needs of a community arts centre

The conservation profession has well established methods and practices for addressing preservation needs. The practicality of these, however, can be called into question when they are applied outside an institutional environment, particularly in a different cultural context. This paper explores the conservation needs of an Aboriginal community art centre. Over several years a partnership between the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at The University of Melbourne and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia, has seen the development of a method for the assessment and care of Waringarri’s permanent community collections. The deterioration factors impacting the preservation of cultural material in the East Kimberley region were considered. Limited documentation arising from a lack of infrastructure, resources and funding was found to be one of the key conservation issues. A strategy is recommended that seeks a national approach to conservation documentation of Indigenous art. This paper suggests that members of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) form a Special Interest Group, much like the Archives Society of Australia’s Indigenous Issues Special Interest Group, to collaborate with representatives from art centres and to work towards a framework for training, resources and funding to support the preservation of Aboriginal cultural material.