Millions in Indigenous art sales prompt major fair to stay online

One of Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous art fairs is planning a permanent online marketplace in addition to its Darwin event after a year of record sales from buyers around the country.

Held every August, the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) is a major event in the Top End tourism calendar. Artists and performers travel from Indigenous communities across the country to showcase their work and visitors are given an opportunity to meet them in person and to learn more about their cultures.It is also responsible for hosting the National Indigenous Fashion Awards and the Country to Couture runway show, which celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fashion designers and textiles producers.

In 2021 nearly 60,000 different people used the DAAF’s online marketplace, with 62 per cent of them saying they’d never been to the Darwin-based festival before.

“Our historical data would suggest we have a huge amount of returning visitors and we know that in 2020, as well as this year with the online iteration of the event, it did reach an incredible new audience,” said Claire Summers, the DAAF Foundation’s executive director.“If I had a dollar for everyone who said thank you so much for going online we can actually visit your amazing event now and connect with these artists, I’d be very rich indeed.”

More than 70 art centres, representing more than 1700 artist, used the DAAF online platform to sell their work this year.“It’s one of the big calendar events that they have throughout the year,” said Shilo McNamee, an Eastern Arrente woman who serves as an artistic director for the DAAF Foundation. …continue through link