Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in annual reports 1973-2015: a study of the Australia Council for the Arts
Date
2016
Authors
Rentschler, R.
Martin, B.
Subramaniam, N.
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Conference paper
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Proceedings of the 2016 APIRA Conference, 2016, iss.353, pp.1-22
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8th Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) Conference (13 Jul 2016 - 15 Jul 2016 : Melbourne, Australia)
Abstract
Purpose: This paper examines the symbolic meanings and financial realities encoded in the annual reports of the Australia Council for the Arts (ACA), the premier Australian federal government’s arts funding and advisory body.
Method: Guided by symbolism and pragmatic legitimacy theories, we assess how symbolic representations of Aboriginal (i.e. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) peoples’ arts through organisational disclosures are associated with pragmatic outcomes e.g. funding and social capital outcomes for the ACA. The data analysis tracks the pattern of Aboriginal representation in text and image along with ACA funding patterns over some 42 years (1973-2015) and considers their longitudinal association juxtaposed with concurrent developments in the broader political and social environment.
Findings: Our results indicate funding for Aboriginal arts as a proportion of total ACA budget has remained somewhat static over time (averaging around 4% of budget), but total budget allocation to the ACA escalated significantly i.e. more than doubled around 1999 (i.e. post the announcement of the ‘Creative Nation’ policy). We also find Aboriginal representation in ACA’s annual reports in terms of visual imagery and text data over the four decades did not systematically vary with funding where (i) text representation of Aboriginal issues, (ii) the pattern of ACA’s total funding budget, and (iii) the budget allocation by the ACA to Aboriginal arts programs.
Theoretical/Practical Implications: The findings of this study provide empirical support for the use of textual and visual imagery for both symbolic as well as pragmatic legitimisation purposes in annual reports. Given that ACA disclosures post-2000 cover a broader set of cultural art forms, reflecting Australia’s changing social fabric and competing demands from other cultural heritage art forms.
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Copyright 2016 the author(s)