Cultural Protocols

As an online journal with a focus on First Nations art and writing from across the globe, we aim to be transparent about our cultural protocols. These protocols are living, evolving practices, and we recognise that by documenting them, they become almost instantly out of date.

Because cultural ways of being, knowing and respecting vary between communities across the globe, we know our aims of representing global First Peoples are ambitious and may occasionally be contradictory. Yet as Gerald McMaster writes in his piece for Volume One, more things connect us than divide us here.

The First Peoples Board who led the creation of Blue Art Journal kept these values close while considering the first volume:

• Cultural authority–authority may reside within a collective or a knowledge system. Permissions might be layered. We encourage readers to think across these dimensions.
• Community accountability and relational responsibility. We’re not perfect; we encourage multiplicity of viewpoints. This will be a place to read critique and open itself back up to critique–without defamation or lateral violence.
• Cyclical and seasonal, this project will grow. It doesn’t aim to just be one immutable thing; that is a Western modality. If something isn’t addressed immediately, or done in a way you’re used to, let time do its work. We actively want to create a space that does this differently, which might alter reading habits.
• Data sovereignty and archival intervention. We’ve included a note about ICIP in our Privacy Policy in the footer

Cultural learning and its ever-changing nature will guide Blue Art Journal. We will centre respect, relationship and communication as we begin this journey, and keep this page as up to date as we can with our learnings and developments in this space. Below is a list of how we will resource this work.

Resources:

Community feedback from First Peoples in the arts. Please reach out to us at editorial@blueartjournal.com

Board members, Elders, kin and their community

• Create NSW Aboriginal Art & Culture Protocols
• NAVA Code of Practice: Principles Ethics and Rights
• Proper Partnerships in Industries Dealing with Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property