The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF), was established by the Queensland government as a strategic initiative within the Backing Indigenous Arts program in 2009 and is Australia’s leading Indigenous Art Fair.
In order for it to reach its full potential, the event gained independent status with the creation of a business unit in 2013 becoming a corporate entity. Despite the change of legal position, it remains a non-profit and limited liability company. Its activities are supported through federal and state government funding, as well as through philanthropic partnerships and sponsorships.
Board membership is skill-based and carefully promotes greater representation of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
Personally I have always been fascinated by Australia, a continent at the antipodes of our country. In my family history, part of my grandparents’ stories and stories take place in this scenario. That of my family is one of the many immigration stories that have had a happy development; and so many others. It can be said with a certain amount of indisputability that in this territory the stories of those who have immigrated there are more positive than those of those who have always lived in that land and has been usurped, breaking a bond of visceral belonging and which, unfortunately, is been relegated to a marginal role in society.
The aboriginal question has long been misunderstood and underestimated under various aspects: social, economic, cultural, artistic. It is for this reason that CIAF, the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, acquires vital importance.
Where the Indigenous Art Fair was born, a symbolic place
Cairns is a city on the northwest coast in the state of Queensland. Today it is of strategic importance from a tourist point of view, ranking fifth among the most visited inhabited centers on the continent, as an access point to the Great Barrier Reef. Furthermore, in its hinterland, in the tropical zone, there is an important rainforest considered a World Heritage Site.
It was Captain James Cook in 1770 who discovered the area, inhabited since ancient times by various indigenous peoples, which since then became the destination of numerous explorations for the next 100 years. The founding of the city dates back to 1876 and takes its name from the then governor of the state, William Cairns. It is therefore symbolic that Australia’s first indigenous art fair takes place right here, in the city that is emblematic of its colonial past.
CIAF and its values
The purpose of this event is to strengthen and celebrate indigenous culture, while creating professional development opportunities for artists and providing platforms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultural exchange with visitors. The hope is to generate connections that inspire creativity and dialogue beyond local borders, with the aim of educating the public through knowledge.
These correlations are fundamental to the culture of the entire country: they ensure, for artists and indigenous communities in particular, cultural maintenance and support the development of artistic practices as cultural expression, simultaneously revealing an economic opportunity. By committing to the employment, training and professional development of Aboriginal people and the inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands, CIAF has applied a winning business model that allows the financial return to the artists and the profitability of the event.
In fact, through the program for collectors and curators, meetings with artists are facilitated and investors are attracted for acquisitions in private and public collections, some of them of considerable prestige, new work commissions and educational courses for visual and performative artists budding are also provided.
Ethics is therefore the hallmark of the Fair in the art market.
According to the data reported on their website, the event enjoys extremely high visitor satisfaction rates: 98% of visitors, artists and exhibitors rate the experience positively, as “excellent” or “good”. 90% of participants agreed that CIAF has increased their understanding of Aboriginal art and cultures and the Torres Strait Islands.
The artistic competition
The CIAF Art Awards process is one of a kind, as there is no competition entry process to take part in it. All suitable works exhibited within the exhibition space are judged. These include those presented by Queensland Indigenous Art Centers (IACA members), local and commercial galleries, independent artists and guest artists.
A jury of esteemed academics and professionals of the arts, which is renewed with each edition, is selected to judge the awards. The latter represent an encouragement for artists to increase their profile and their creative capacity in the pursuit of innovation and excellence.
The competition categories are as follows:
Cairns Airport Innovation Award
BDO Emerging Artist
Excellence Award (Queensland Government)
Cairns Regional Council Art Center Award
“Gillian Mailman Group of Companies” – Popular Jury
Ports North 3D Award and Sculpture
How to participate in the Indigenous Art Fair from a distance
For those wishing to attend the event and visit it virtually, the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair is online. From 10 to 19 November it is possible to access exclusive contents.
A seguire il link del programma dell’edizione 2021
To follow the link of the program of the 2021 edition
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