Indigenous Kimberley MP & Artist & European-style ‘droit de suit’ royalties scheme

The Honourable Carol Martin, Australia’s first Indigenous woman parliamentarian, Member for the Kimberley in the Western Australian parliament, is also a wonderful painter. She had her first exhibition in Broome last year and since then acclaim is growing for her work which has many dimensions, including a commentary on the world of politics from a deep Indigenous spiritual perspective.

Carol has also been a great supporter of the Indigenous Stock Exchange (ISX) and she has chosen to list a number of her very special works of art for sale on the ISX trading floor. Carol is launching a new moral and ethical investment principle for investors in Indigenous art.

She asks that purchasers make a voluntary tax deductible donation to a special purpose Australian Indigenous Art and Culture Development fund to the equivalent of 20 per cent of the purchase price of the work of art. Many will have heard about Europe’s ‘droit de suit’ which compels purchasers of art works to pay royalties to the artists from subsequent profitable sales. This is sorely needed for Indigenous Australia, but Carol in conjunction with the ISX has devised something that should serve Indigenous Australia in the meantime and which could form a moral and ethical code for investors in Indigenous Australian art.

On the back of each painting a provenance document will be attached with a voluntary agreement to make a tax deductible donation to a fund or cause of the artist’s choice. Each subsequent purchaser of the painting is asked to sign the provenance document and agree to this undertaking. The undertaking has to be voluntary but it’s hoped that galleries and ethical investors will start to see this as an essential part of supporting and investing in Indigenous Art. In effect the provenance document becomes an honor roll, as well as a map of the paintings history.

BACKGROUND
The goal of the ISX, initiated in May, 2003, is to support the development of as many Indigenous businesses as possible – addressing the urgent need for jobs for Indigenous young people especially in regional, remote and very remote Australia. The ISX wants to create hope and encouragement at grass roots levels for all Indigenous ideas, enterprise and development.

The ISX webcast and video-conferenced its second community trading floor in Broome to Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and to numerous sites across the country and the world. The innovation involved in this trading floor, held in May, 2004, led to the ISX being made a laureate of Silicon Valley’s Tech Museum in San Jose California. The budget was about $A45,000.

On the ‘trading floor’ participants can put forward their needs for investment, mentoring and other forms of support. The ISX recommends that enterprises serious about gaining support should put a lot of effort into their on-line presentation and, if it is a commercial operation, a micro-navigator rating indicating the level of business readiness, should be acquired. All the revenue raised for each trading floor goes to Indigenous organisations first or to the must have technical expertise to make webcasting and video conferencing possible.

FOR MORE INFO VISIT: http://www.isx.org.au/projects/1130479366_20448.html