This petition is to request a policy that will prevent the importation of products that are passed off as Indigenous-made and sold in Australia. These products are mostly painted Boomerangs, key chains, bags etc. with fake Aboriginal designs on them and even some painted canvases.

Thousands of these products are sold every day to tourists in Australia. Some of them have removable labels or stickers stating where the product was made, some of them have no labels at all.

Regardless of labeling or lack of, many of these products use iconic images and traditional painting styles that give consumers a false impression about the origin of the products.

It may be hard to police the sale of non-genuine Aboriginal products in general but banning the import of products that mimic Indigenous art would go a long way in reducing the number of fakes on the market, given that the vast majority of them are imported.

Such a ban would mean that anybody wanting to mass produce and sell fake Aboriginal products would have to make the product in Australia. This would severely reduce the profit margin, taking away the incentive for people to produce fakes Indigenous art.

It would also leave the market open for genuine Indigenous art sales to thrive.