New American Australian centre in New York to open opportunities for Indigenous scholars and artists

Giovanni Torre Published March 30, 2023 at 12.00am (AWST)

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A painting by eight Indigenous women commissioned to celebrate the opening of the new American Australian Association HQ in New York.

The American Australian Association has launched a new era which will open up new opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and scholars.

The new American Australian Association Murdoch Center, opened this month, will serve as a meeting place for Americans and Australians to collaborate in pursuit of strong ties between their two nations.

The Center will allow the Association to showcase the intellectual and artistic abilities of more than 1,000 graduate scholars, veterans and artists who have been awarded over US$15 million in grants by the Association.

Association president, former ambassador John Berry noted that the group's scholarship and exchange programs has become one of the largest Indigenous exchange programs between the United States and Australia.

To commemorate the opening of the New York City headquarters, the American Australian Association commissioned a custom artwork from the APY Art Centre Collective.

This painting was a collaboration between eight Indigenous women artists based in Adelaide, South Australia: Rhoda Tjitayi, Sandra Pumani, Josephine Mick, Tjimpuna Williams, Jennifer Ingkatji, Yaritji Heffernan, Leah Brady, and Nyunmiti Burton.

The Center, located in Manhattan, formally opened on March 14 with United States Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy and Australian Ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos AO in attendance, along with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and Anthony Pratt.

The American Australian Association was founded by Keith Murdoch in 1948, and the new Center made possible by a very grant from News Corp and Fox Corporation, and with the support of the Pratt Foundation.

The Murdoch Center will enable the United States Studies Centre in Sydney and the Perth USAsia Centre, part of the American Australian Association family, to bring their world class research from Australia to the United States. It will also empower the Association to carry forward its mission of deepening economic engagement between the two nations through business roundtables, conferences and in other gatherings that encourage trade, investment and innovation.