Overview

Editors:

Ray Goodlass, Marion Bannister and Rachael Williams
Centre for Rural Social Research
Charles Sturt University, NSW

A demonstration of 'the diversity of arts practice and cultural life in regional, rural and remote Australia... Difference might not exactly flourish, and in some ways metropolitan art continues to be imposed on the regions, but in some ways...our culture is our own and art by and about local people is being made'.
Ray Goodlass - Guest Editorial

This Special Issue of Rural Society explores arts and culture in rural, regional and remote Australia, documenting cultural history and asserting the centrality of the arts in both marginalised and dominant communities. It recognises the important role arts and cultural activity play in creating and maintaining healthy communities.

While examining several key aspects of arts practice and cultural activity, in the context of rural society, it more significantly considers the contributions beyond those of mainstream Anglo-Celtic Australian practitioners or consumers - including indigenous culture and inter-cultural arts practice. Arts and Culture in Rural, Regional and Remote Australia is a testimony to:

• The important role arts and cultural activity play in creating and maintaining healthy communities
• The vulnerability of indigenous cultures in the face of rampant global development, while celebrating the resilience of Aboriginal culture
• The power of music and dance as agents of positive social change.

Available separately as a book, Arts and Culture in Rural, Regional and Remote Australia is essential reading for policy makers, arts councils and state art ministries, as well as researchers and teachers in the field of the arts, culture and rural society, as well as in community empowerment, arts therapy and public funding.

Table of Contents

Guest Editorial
Ray Goodlass

Many songs, many voices, and many dialogues: a conversation about Yanuwa performance practice in a remote aboriginal community
Elizabeth Mackinlay & John Bradley

Outside the hollow log: the Didjeridu, globalisation and socio-economic contestation in Arnhem Land
Aaron Corn

Darwin-Style intercultural community theatre: postcolonial performances on the edge of Australia
Lesley Delmenico

Theatre in rural Australia: theatre of the region or in the region?
Geoffrey Milne

'Pity the Bandless Towns': brass banding in australian rural communities before World War II
John Whiteoak

Beyond the drought: towards a broader understanding of rural disadvantage
reg Hall & Melinda Scehltens

Tasmania as Little England and the social construction of landscape
Max Staples

Book Reviews