Who counts, and is counted, in craft?

Abstract

Drawing upon customised Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this Cultural Commons article argues cultural studies researchers need to remain attentive to the absences and erasures within craft, and cultural and creative practice more generally. It offers a numbers-driven insight into the exclusions of craft work, critically exploring the limits of the quantitative capturing of craft making practices and of the biases of statistical data. But it further contends that to effect change requires not just that we identify the problem - it is important, too, to be on the look-out for the presence of possibility. It thus demonstrates how statistics also have the potential to make visible activity not immediately evident, especially to researchers working empirically from within their own often mostly white middle-class networks. In the Australian context, what the census data do reveal is the ongoing strength of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander visual arts, but not so much craft practice. With Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians representing 3.3% of the total Australian population, that 9.17% of all Australians employed as Visual Artists identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is indeed significant – and worth looking to as a source of insights into how crafts practice can become more diverse and inclusive. This short article forms part of the special issue ‘Craft Economies and Inequalities’.