Author: Douglas McLennan

“For far too long many non-indigenous people have exploited indigenous culture through the production of Aboriginal art and cultural products not of Aboriginal origin. Artists whose paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars have been paid in cans of beer. Ancient taboos have been broken by companies that reproduce sacred totems on dish towels and underwear. Allegations of fakery abound.” – ABC News

• Forty-four years ago, 20,000 members of the Federation of South African Women marched on the headquarters of the prime minister to demand equal gender laws. The South African government has commissioned a monument which will attempt to “avoid a sense of the “heroic” as we have come to expect of bronze and granite monoliths, but in so doing, not to cheat women of their heroism, and to take into account the polyphonic and multivalent qualities of [their] culture.” – Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa)

San Francisco art collectors Vicki and Kent Logan have proposed donating 400 pieces of their remarkable collection of contemporary art to the Tate Museum. But the proposed gift is so unusual and so vast, the Tate is still “thinking it over” as to what to do. – The Telegraph (UK)

With buildings becoming more and more pre-fabricated, who’s got need of an architect anymore? “And yet Britain has something like 30,000 architects. What do they do? Few seem to be involved at any great depth in the design of what really matters, such as new housing, even though Britain is being smothered in a feverish rash of the red-brick, three-bedroom stuff.” – The Guardian

The Archaeological Institute of America has told Congress that a potential change in US law would increase the pillage of archaeological artifacts internationally. – The Art Newspaper

The history of Northern Ireland is painted on its walls. “People have painted murals in Northern Ireland for almost a century. For most of that time, they were almost entirely unionist. Every year on 12 July, unionists decorated their streets to celebrate the victory of the Protestant William III over the Catholic James II in 1690. When new trolley and electricity lines interrupted this annual custom, unionists began to paint “King Billy” on their gable walls instead. For the next 60 years, these portraits were repainted every summer. Then came the Troubles, which inspired republican murals, and dramatically transformed loyalist murals, too.” – New Statesman

Egyptian police have foiled smugglers’ attempts to transport $35 million worth of Egyptian, Roman and Greek artifacts out of Egypt. – CBC

Police bust thieves in Turkey trying to unload a stolen 1938 Picasso. – BBC