Aboriginal lives matter

3 June 2020

For the last few months, especially during lockdown, I've been making a large, multi-panel work called 'Smoak'.  This is the spelling used by Joseph Banks in his diary on first seeing the east coast of Australia in 1770 where plumes of campfire smoke clearly signalled a peopled landscape. Among other things, the work considers 250 years of fraught and fruitful interaction between Europeans and Aboriginal people in Australia.

Reflecting on the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the US and the 432 tragic deaths in custody of First Nations Australians since 1991, (after we held a Royal Commission on this issue for fuck's sake), this morning I read a good article by James Purtill that discusses the practical ways you can support the cause of Aboriginal Lives Matter.

‘Indigenous voices have pointed out the similarities to Aboriginal death in custody cases, saying Australians need to turn their outrage at police brutality in the US to action in their own backyard.’

Purtill quotes Dr Chelsea Bond, a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman at the University of Queensland, who links those who deny we have a problem here with the foundation myth of Australian emptiness,  

'What is it about people's failure to see and hear and how is this connected to the idea of terra nullius — that we're not even here? There is a relationship.'

Of course Australians 'know' terra nullius is not true, but time and time again politicians, journalists and ordinary people speak about our history through a fog of forgetting - as if knowing and believing are two different things. Within the last five years my daughter was taught that Captain Cook 'discovered' Australia and more recently we’ve heard speeches at ANZAC day stating that Australia was first attacked by foreign forces in World War Two.  Kids are rarely taught about our many frontier wars, massacre sites, deliberate flour poisoning and small pox infection strategies, Aboriginal child removal and more. 

As Chelsea Bond says

'Australian society is founded on the non-existence of Indigenous people.'

So although Joseph Banks saw 'Smoak' and James Cook was instructed to be friendly to the natives, subsequent policies, to this very day, continue to pretend our original inhabitants away. 

In James Purtill's list of practical ways to help, he urges self-education.  If the state won't do it, we need to read and participate in activities that foreground our rich and amazing Aboriginal Australian culture - the longest continuous culture on earth. (Why aren't we so so proud of this?) 

Here is my practical way - it doesn't bring lives back but it values the lives in my community.  I make art* and weed, plant and care for land in my local area and take every opportunity to involve and listen to Wurundjeri voices on that land.

One place is Bunjil Reserve in Panton Hill where I, with Paradoxa Collective collaborators, have worked and celebrated Indigenous culture and nature since 2016. There we've attended many smoking ceremonies as well as quieter land care activities with groups such as the Wurundjeri Narrap Team and Nillumbik Council. As Covid-19 struck we were also well into our program, ‘Walking Talking Listening Learning’, six public gatherings designed to educate ourselves and others amongst various Bunjil communities.  Local Wurundjeri elders have and will lead two of our walking talks.

The Covid lockdown came as our third talk was due to take place. This and subsequent events are currently being reconfigured to occur later in 2020, beginning with our first webinar event on 14 June:

‘Divine Daves: traditional burning and botany in conversation’

During these hiatus months I have made this work 'Smoak' informed by the reserve and by Australian history. With Bunjil leaves, charcoal and rusted metal I’ve distilled rich brown ink to coat multiple wooden panels. On these I am painting aspects of nature that suggest metamorphosis, reincarnation and plant spirits. 

This work regards the best in our connections – telling the truth and using healing smoke on the land we wait to walk on together.

 *As another practical step I’ll donate half the proceeds of this work to promote Aboriginal education in our primary schools’ curriculum. Contact me if you know of a good program to support.