Is the piece of art an authentic Aboriginal product?

For some consumers, and others in the art market, the authenticity of Aboriginal art has become associated with whether or not "a story", most often related to the dreaming, is associated with the particular piece. The problem is of course that not all art produced by Aboriginal people has the same relationship to a "story". For example, some work relates to body markings or depictions of country. There is now a wide range of different forms of Aboriginal art with different relationships to "traditional" culture that make this expectation of a "story" not always appropriate. However, even in those forms of Aboriginal art that traditionally have been more associated with the relating of a story, the expectation that "the story" of the painting will be relayed to the consumer presents its own problems. In his account of the art of an Arnhem Land community, Howard Morphy indicates that the relating of a story from the work was considered important by the artists as part of a process of ...  more