Visual Culture, Heritage and Identity (Archaeopress 2021): 7–23 In this chapter we consider how and why Indigenous rock art is borrowed, appropriated, re-contextualised, and used today. 1 Indigenous motifs – including rock paintings and engravings – were and are more than simply decorative designs or passive reflections of objects and ideas (e.g. Hampson 2016a; Morphy 2009; Nicholas 2017; Schaafsma 1997, 2013). Indeed, archaeological, anthropological, historical, and art historical studies have confirmed the importance of Indigenous art as windows onto hunter-gatherer, pastoralist, and farmer belief systems through the millennia (e.g. Hampson 2016a; Layton 1992; Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989; Loubser 2013; Schaafsma 1980, 1997; Whitley 2000). 2 Integral to Indigenous knowledge systems in the past, art also remains powerfully relevant to what it means to be human today. Although previous research has suggested reasons why Indigenous groups created art, and why regional motifs and identities vary across time and space (e.g. Challis 2017; Hampson 2016b; Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989; Schaafsma 1980; Whitley 2000), the use and impacts of Indigenous art in the present have been overlooked (cf. Brady and Taçon 2016; Hampson 2013; Nicholas 2017; Nicholas and Bannister 2004; Schaafsma 1997, 2013; Smith 2016a). At a moment when there is much debate about intellectual property rights and identity (e.g. Nicholas 2017; see also his seminal Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project, and Hampson (forthcoming)), it is important to investigate the role of Indigenous imagery in old and new contexts, both on and off the rocks. As Saïd (1994: 56) states: ‘We live … in a world not only of commodities 1 For a debate on whether the term ‘art’ is appropriate, or an incorrect categorisation or arrogant imposition, see e.g. Chippindale and Taçon (1988); Townsend-Gault et al. (2013). 2 We focus on art made by hunter-gatherer communities, but we also touch on art made by pastoralist and farming groups. but also of representation, and representations – their production, circulation, history, and interpretation – are the very element of culture.’ Is art significant or relevant however even if we do not know exactly why it was created in the first place, or exactly what it meant to people in the past? In the interconnected and increasingly virtual Anthropocene era, who has the right to create, borrow, or ‘use’ certain symbols? Who decides what is or is not appropriate, and who has the right to make value judgements? 3 Like all groups, Indigenous groups are of course heterogeneous, dynamic, and fluid; each group views, values and uses cultural heritage and art in different ways – but, unsurprisingly, there are similarities between and among groups too. Acknowledging some of these differences and similarities – and indeed fluidity – we address how Indigenous art shapes, reaffirms, and challenges cultural and socio-political identities today. To do this, we utilise theory from archaeology, anthropology, art history, and intellectual property analysis; and also from cultural heritage, visual heritage, and Indigenous studies. We focus on rock art, but we also consider symbols on and from other media. Unsurprisingly perhaps, several media or platforms can be and are used for the creation of new art, and also the re-contextualisation of symbols – many of which are deemed sacred by Indigenous groups. Today, for instance, we find Indigenous motifs in, among others, national coats-of-arms, on coins and postage stamps, in sports logos, in contemporary artworks, and in other socio-political and commercial contexts: on T-shirts, coffee mugs, casino logos, wine bottles and 3 A better word than re-contextualisation, perhaps, might often (or always) be ‘appropriation’. Regardless of which term is used, we need to acknowledge that there is a ‘value judgement’ at play – as explicated in the following section. Indigenous Art in New Contexts: Inspiration or Appropriation? Jamie Hampson and Rory Weaver Department of Humanities, University of Exeter Abstract: In many countries, cultural and socio-political identity is shaped, manipulated, presented, and challenged through rock art. Both on and off the rocks, Indigenous pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (engravings) are powerful things in themselves, and powerful tools. Drawing from twenty years of fieldwork in southern Africa, northern Australia, and North America, this chapter focuses on re-contextualised and appropriated rock art images in commercial settings, in new art works, and as integral components of political symbols. Concepts of reproduction, agency, and affect are addressed through archaeological, anthropological, and visual heritage lenses. Specific case studies include the commodification and re-contextualisation of Kokopelli and Thunderbird motifs in the USA; First Nation images in Canada; San paintings and engravings in South Africa; and Aboriginal art in Australia. Keywords: Rock art, Indigenous, heritage, appropriation, identity