Indigenous creative participation

About 27 per cent of Indigenous Australians aged 15 years and over participated in at least one of three Indigenous creative arts activities in the 12 months before interview.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics collected this information in the 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey.

The most popular creative activity was arts or crafts, with 16 per cent of the 77,300 total participating. Following this was writing or telling stories, with 13 per cent participating; and music, dance or theatre, with an 8 per cent participation rate.

Around 8 per cent of participants were paid for taking part in an Indigenous creative arts activity.

Participants in Indigenous arts and crafts were more likely to be paid for their work than those performing Indigenous music, dance or theatre, or writing or telling Indigenous stories.

Indigenous women were more active in Indigenous creative arts, with 30 per cent taking part, compared to 25 per cent of men.

Source

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: Involvement in Arts and Culture, 2001 and 2002 (cat. no. 4721.0).

Links

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Arts and Culture in Australia: A Statistical Overview, 2009, Participation and Attendance (cat. no. 4172.0).

Tourism Research Australia, Snapshot; Indigenous Tourism Visitors in Australia 2008

Tourism Research Australia, Sharing Culture: Indigenous Experiences and the International Visitor.

Australia Council, The Arts Economy 1968–1998: Three Decades of Growth in Australia (Guldberg 2000).