Aboriginal Carpet Case

When staff at niaaa saw the carpets they identified them as copying the original works of several well known aboriginal artists.

Aboriginal carpet case.

Lead by respected aboriginal artist chris edwards simon robinson director of the rug collection and wirriimbi designs hosted a hands on cultural exchange craft workshop which inspired the imagination and creativity of aboriginal youth and their families to convey their important cultural stories through the non written language of visual. The carpets case a landmark in the legal protection of aboriginal art occurred in 1994. According to evidence given to the court these publications were at the vietnamese carpet factory when a director of beechrow first visited it. It involved an australian company which had reproduced woollen carpets with the unauthorised artwork of eight aboriginal artists including a yalangbara based print by banduk marika djanda and the sacred waterhole.

In 1993 wandjuk s sister banduk marika was involved in one of the most successful cases regarding indigenous copyright in australia. The salesperson was interested in knowing whether the aboriginal carpets for sale in the store were authentic. After a 14 day trial three aboriginal artists and the estates of five other deceased aboriginal artists were awarded damages totalling 188 640 for infringements of their copyright. The artists were all very prominent.