Paper short abstract:

What alternatives to mainstream schooling do Indigenous-owned art centres create? I discuss how Yirrkala's Indigenous art centre operates as a platform for out of school learning by discussing its development, program and affordances.

Paper long abstract:

In many northern Australian Indigenous communities, learning is a feature of both the school and art centre. This paper examines a leading Indigenous art centre in the Northern Territory as a cross-cultural organisation that delivers out of school learning. It aims to relocate studies on learning outside the mainstream in the network of Indigenous-owned art centres spread across the country. Three questions structure the discussion: What forms of out of school learning do art centres enable? Who is driving the use of art centres as local learning environments? When do art centres provide alternatives to family-led intergenerational teaching practices, and government run national models of schooling? I claim a lack of scholarship on how multi-age community members turn Indigenous art centres into a platform that develops knowledge practices has led to problematic engagements with external agencies equipped to address gaps and develop communities. Analysis is framed by the scholar practitioner perspective of working in Northeast Arnhem Land at Yirrkala’s art centre and school.