ABSTRACT
Remote Yolngu settlements such as Yilpara were being threatened by a government policy which saw them as unsustainable. The Federal Government’s aim was to reduce welfare dependency and improve the cost-effectiveness of service provision. The European visitors were representatives of government departments concerned with tourism, economic development, education and infrastructure, as well as representatives of funding bodies. The production of art for sale required certain cultural adjustments, one of which being the need to respond to an external market, and the other the internal consequences of producing art for new contexts of use and display. Yolngu in many cases had to find solutions to changes contingent on the opening up of their art to new contexts. These solutions can be framed as problematic in a market obsessed with a particular concept of authenticity.
