Contemporary Australia: Women

71 This statement can be viewed as Cole’s solution to the pain and suffering that is felt throughout her Aboriginal community. She observed that ‘some pain is generational’ 9 and ‘as people we can take on the traumas of our parents, our grandparents . . . ’ 10 Here then, the forgiveness to which she refers is made with the broader Aboriginal community in mind. Australia’s colonisation left a debilitating mark on many of this continent’s Indigenous people: cycles of dispossession, genocide, poverty, neglect and abuse have left many communities damaged. But Cole’s work is a call for forgiveness by communities who, she observes, ‘have been dealing with and trying to heal the damage in a number of ways. I think the path is through forgiveness and allowing ourselves to be healed.’ 11 Although better known for her work with photographic images, in I forgive you Cole chose to resolve her ideas through text. At first, she was unsure of the best way to convey these ideas, and initially considered photography. However, she felt that the written word, in a feathery incarnation, would have broad appeal and prompt immediate recognition and understanding. She felt a strong personal connection to emu feathers and fell in love with this beautiful and unique native material, the world’s only double feather. Cole has adorned the large text pieces in a thick, lush cloak of them, attaching by hand some 12 000 feathers in a long process which allowed her to address many of the personal issues embedded within the work. 12 These feathers soften the bold letters that would otherwise seem confrontational and serve as a skin or layer that clothes and protects the raw emotion of the statement: Everybody here in Australia has some form of baggage around Aboriginal Australia. For some it might be guilt, for some it might be anger, everyone has a reaction. 13 Cole’s work ultimately calls upon viewers to think about why she is granting them forgiveness. She urges Australians to overcome their sense of collective amnesia, or ignorance, and consider the hurt that made this gesture necessary. Although not everyone is able to reconcile and forgive as easily, with so many still angry and scarred by their pasts, Cole reminds us that: ‘forgiveness is not about forgetting. It may seem like it’s giving away more power. It is not, it is about getting back your power’ 14 . For Bindi Cole, being reconciled with oneself and at peace within the world provides the chance to move into the future, engaged in open and meaningful dialogue. And it all begins with the words, ‘I forgive you’. Bruce McLean I forgive you 2012 Emu feathers on MDF board 100 x 1000cm Opposite Seventy Times Seven (stills) 2011 Digital video, 10:21 mins Image courtesy: The artist and Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne Bindi Cole