ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that important points of influence and intersection between feminist and Indigenous curatorial methods. Contemporary feminist practice gains strength through knowledge of curatorial history. Feminist exhibitions started out as socially engaged, lively and inclusive affairs that cut across restrictive hierarchies of genre and art form, professional and amateur. Relative to Indigenous Australian curators, non-Indigenous feminists have had a more difficult time in repurposing the art institution, due in part to the latter's resistance to equity issues. Contemporary feminist curatorial practice re-defines 'equal opportunity' through advocating for policy change and governance in arts funding. Curatorial ambitions expanded again as postmodern feminism responded to the inequitable biases of the art world. In a festivalised art world where everything is 'relevant', the intertwined histories of feminist and Indigenous curating continue to irritate exhibition conventions. Women and Indigenous Australian artists were featured in survey exhibitions, but rarely had retrospective shows, a sign of lingering tokenism.
