Indigenous arts policy: initiatives and challenges

31 May 2012 | The Indigenous Arts Policy Forum held on 7 October 2011 showed that issues such as cultural maintenance, ownership, copyright, protection, promotion, funding and infrastructures are among the key challenges for Indigenous art policy development.

The Forum participants called for cultural policy responses that could serve to ensure the safeguarding of Indigenous languages and cultural expressions, regulation related to copyright, and capacity-building for Indigenous artists regarding ownership and author’s rights. The responses to the survey conducted for this report show that while Indigenous arts practices are an element of interest to different agencies, many do not have specific policy priorities, programs or funding schemes to support such practices.

While Indigenous arts policies are particularly strong in countries with significant Indigenous population, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico and Peru , support for Indigenous arts themes in many other countries is provided through specific projects or as a part of the overall policy objectives of an agency. The survey also showed that while funding for Indigenous arts has, in most cases, increased during the past ten years it remains at a moderate level.