Extract: Nation, Memory, Myth by Steve Vizard
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
How does myth generate meaning for a nation and its citizens? How does a national myth transform into symbolic performances of cultural memory and kinship?
Geoffrey Bardon
Geoffrey Robert Bardon was born in Sydney in 1940. He was educated at the University of Sydney, where he studied law for three years, and the National Art School, Sydney, where for four years he studied art education before graduating in 1966. He taught art at various New South Wales regional high schools before taking up a posting to Papunya in the Northern Territory in 1971. He worked closely with the Indigenous painters who became the founders of the Papunya Tula painting movement from 1971 to 1973 and devoted many years after this to documenting and promoting the art he so admired. He made three documentary films: The Richer Hours (1971), A Calendar of Dreamings (1976) and Mick and the Moon (1978). He has two previous publications: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert (1979) and Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert (1991). Geoffrey Bardon was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 for service to the preservation and development of traditional Indigenous art forms. He died in May 2003 before the first edition of this book was published. He is survived by his wife Dorn and two sons, James and Michael.
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