Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Will Owen's "Basedow's photographs" makes best Australian independent blog posts 2008

I was very pleased that Will Owen's Basedow's photographs made the best independent Australian blog posts of 2008 now being published in On-line Opinion.

Will's blog, Aboriginal Art & Culture: an American eye, is (as the name suggests) a US based blog. Was it in fact eligible?

I took the view that because Will wrote about Australian issues it should, and the judges accepted that view.

The about the author section at the end of the article says:

Will Owen works as a librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, where he is in charge of the University Library’s computing and internet services. He had an abiding interest in contemporary American art before seeing the Dreamings exhibition at the Asia Society in New York City in 1988. He has since travelled regularly to Australia, building a collection of art from communities and cities across the continent and studying Aboriginal culture. Since 2005 he has published Aboriginal Art and Culture: An American eye – a weblog that attracts international readership. He was among the contributors to Beyond Sacred: recent paintings from Australia's remote Aboriginal communities, edited by Colin and Elizabeth Laverty (Hardie Grant Books, 2008).

I have mentioned Will's blog many times because it is such a favourite of mine.

It would be good even if Will limited himself just to art, but he does not. His posts span many aspects of Aboriginal life and of thinking about the Aborigines over time. Some of his posts represent original contributions to the history of Australian thought.

I do not always agree with specific aspects of Will's thinking. We have different views on certain issues. Yet I have learned so much from him.

My personal congratulations.

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