Every second day, somewhere in Australia, an exhibition supported by Visions of Australia , opens to new audience in a different venue. On a typical day, up to 30 Visions assisted exhibitions are on display.
The Commonwealth Government's Visions of Australia program provides funding assistance to non-profit organisations throughout the country, to develop and tour exhibitions of cultural material across State and Territory borders.
While the emphasis is on increasing access for people in regional and remote Australia, it is not always a case of 'taking the city to the bush'. On a number of occasions Visions support has enabled large metropolitan and interstate audiences to see the best Aboriginal art and craft from remote northern and western regions. The Cairns Regional Gallery's tour of Ilan Pasin: Torres Strait Art, through eastern and southern States, will broaden awareness and understanding of the art and culture of the Torres Strait Islands.
In Tasmania, a group of people have collaborated to develop the One Tree Project. This has resulted in an exhibition which aims to show what can be created from just one tree, by presenting a range of products made from an entire Stringy Bark to highlight the value of the forest to the community. More than 30 of Tasmania's crafts people will produce work from musical instruments and bowls, to furniture and sculpture, as well as baskets, medicines and dyes.
The Australian Sugar Industry Museum at Mourilyan, south of Innisfail, has developed the exhibition Refined White. Launched in Mackay in January 2001, it examines the history of the recruitment of South Sea Islanders brought into the country to work the plantations of Queensland, when the work was deemed inappropriate for white Europeans.
Between 1863 and 1904, over 60 000 people arrived to work in the tropical and sub-tropical zones. Following Federation, the first Parliament took steps to prohibit 'coloured' labour and, by 1908, almost 90 per cent of South Sea Islanders had been deported. Refined White aims to raise awareness of the important contribution made by South Sea Islanders to Australia, particularly to the sugar industry.
The exhibition will also explore the social impact of the White Australia policy on South Sea Island people. There will be a contemporary component to the exhibition, acknowledging Australian South Sea Islanders as an important cultural group in the present day. The first part of the tour will visit nine venues within the sugar regions of Queensland and northern New South Wales.
