Lawyers helping make a difference for Aboriginal Artists

Here is a great article from The Australian about Lawyers helping Aboriginal Artists with will making to ensure that their estate is not left in limbo and that the benefactors they have chosen aren't left with complicated legal headaches.

Hats of to the Arts Law Centre from Sydney for this fantastic initiative.

Lawyers offer lessons in legacy

Victoria Laurie March 14, 2008

WHEN Albert Namatjira died in 1959, his descendants missed out on a share of the celebrated artist's estate. In 1957, Namatjira had signed a copyright agreement with the owner of a publishing company, Legend Press.

Two years later, Namatjira died and his estate was handed over to the Northern Territory's public trustee, which in 1983 sold copyright in the works to Legend Press for $8500. It left Namatjira's family unable to gain any benefits from the lucrative reproduction of the artist's popular works over many years.
With trade in contemporary Aboriginal art booming, and paintings that sell for many thousands of dollars, families may miss out on a financial legacy if artists die without leaving wills.

This was the problem faced by the Mowanjum art centre in northwest Western Australia, near Derby, when an important artist from the community died suddenly in 2006. The artist had no offspring of her own although she had raised many children in the community.
She had painted glorious canvases, 50 of which were sitting in the art centre storeroom. They were collectively worth between $50,000 and $200,000, but it was entirely unclear where they should go.
"It left the community with a bit of a headache," says Jenny Wright, manager of the art centre. "What were we to do with them?"
It happened again two weeks before lawyers with the Sydney-based Arts Law Centre arrived in Derby to talk about will-making. Another senior Mowanjum artist had died intestate, and community members flocked to hear what the lawyers had to say. "I thought it was going to be a disaster, with everyone engaged in funeral arrangements," says Arts Law executive director and lawyer Robyn Ayres, who attended the Derby meeting. "But it actually sharpened people's minds about the issues involved and we had a big turnout.

"We worked flat out for four days and we drafted 22 wills for all the artists. Even ones who weren't working out of the arts centre came forward. Sadly, one of the willmakers has passed away since and the art centre has told us (the will) really made a difference."
Ayres and her small team explained to the Mowanjum artists that when a person died, it wasn't just their paintings that could become valuable inherited items. Under intellectual property law, a deceased artist's work is subject to copyright for 70 years after death.
"If it's a successful artist, and there's a desire to reproduce their work, then there's a potential income source for the beneficiaries," says Ayres. "It may just be a trickle but even a few hundred dollars now and then makes a difference."

Arts Law's services in will-making are part of a program called Artists in the Black, intended to increase indigenous access to legal advice on art-related matters. Ayres admits that the popularity of the service (which is not extended to non-indigenous artists, who are simply provided with Arts Law's sample will) has taken them by surprise.
"We also deal with other difficult issues like where a person wants to be buried, who is going to look after their children. It serves a number of purposes."

Mowanjum's art will be recognisable to those who remember watching the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony, and the ghostly Spirit of the Wandjina image that artist Donny Woolagoodja created. As art centre chairman, Woolagoodja was among the first to write his will with Arts Law assistance. "They are a good thing to do," he says on a visit to Perth this week, before an invitation-only showing of Mowanjum art at resource giant Woodside's headquarters, and a gallery exhibition later this month.
"It means people know they are not going to go (pass) away and leave nothing to children and grandchildren," he says. Without a will, he adds, "maybe everything goes back to the government".
Contemporary Aboriginal art earns healthy incomes for many more artists than in Namatjira's day.
Woolagoodja's work can fetch up to $15,000 for a major painting, and last November, Sotheby's auctioned a Mowanjum collective painting for $35,000.
Sandra Mungulu, whose work will also be displayed in the Mowanjum exhibition, last year achieved the community's highest solo price for a painting, of $21,000.

Making wills becomes more important as prices increase for indigenous art, says Wright. In addition, Aboriginal communities increasingly have more assets to distribute, such as boats and cars bought with mining industry royalties or wages.

Community arts centres often get caught up in the emotional wrangling over posthumous intellectual and property rights on behalf of members, she says. "So it's healthier from our point of view that the community is informed about all of their legal rights. This is a fantastic program."
Wright says when Ayres and Arts Law's indigenous lawyer Trish Adjei visited Mowanjum, the relief among artists was palpable.
"It was a resounding success and a great turnout. People were able to break off into family groups and discuss matters in private with a lawyer. People said they felt better and that the process accorded respect to their elders."
This week, Adjei was back up north with another lawyer, drafting 13 wills for artists at Waringarri arts centre in Kununurra, and another half dozen at Warmun art centre at Turkey Creek. Fitzroy Crossing is next on their itinerary.

"One artist at Waringarri passed away two years ago (without a will) and the public trustees have taken a year to find the relevant stakeholders," says Adjei. By writing down the names of nominated beneficiaries, she says, it will be a speedier process to distribute assets.
What has surprised Adjei is the generosity of those artists seeking to spread their few assets and remaining paintings around.
"There wasn't a single person who didn't already know who they wanted to leave things to," she says. "And a lot of the elderly artists have a large number of beneficiaries: one had 30 people to whom they wanted to leave assets.

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