My country, I still call Australia home: Contemporary art from Black Australia

constructed over the course of history, but instead they respectfully depicted people as seen in situ, on country. Interestingly, Sorry has for this presentation been reversed, as if being viewed in a mirror, similar to Albert’s recent presentation of his major collaborative work, Pay Attention Mother Fuckers 2009–10, which was exhibited in 2012 in ‘(un)disclosed: The National Indigenous Art Triennial’ (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra). This manipulation and inversion of text repositions the message; it shifts the tone from statement to question, and asks us to contemplate the exchange made in all words of apology. Naturally, in this context, it prompts us to recall the exchange during the national Apology between the leader of a constructed nation and the first peoples of this land. For a number of years, Albert has actively sought and collected Aboriginalia with the intent of removing it from circulation and re-contextualising it within his creative practice. In Sorry , he takes these commonplace objects, still found in living rooms across Australia, and positions them within the discourse of national race politics. By bringing these figures together he highlights the inappropriateness of such depictions and asks the viewer to reflect upon the impact that imagery such as this has had on the Australian psyche. The figures stare towards viewers and evoke a spectrum of responses, ranging from empathy to anger, depending on one’s cultural position. One of the questions Albert asks through this work is ‘how would non-Indigenous people feel about images of their ancestors decorating the bottom of ashtrays, their faces burnt each time a cigarette is stubbed out, and what does this say about race politics in Australia?’ Unfortunately, there are some, if not many, who believe that we (the first people of this land) should simply get over it , build a bridge and move on . What is clear in the works of Cole, Bell, Hookey and Albert, is that five years on the Apology is still central to the discourse surrounding race politics in Australia, with a polarity of opinions still very much alive, and it is these tensions that seem to activate their practices. Their interrogations and responses bring the colonial divide back into the frame and central within the shot; they refute any denial of its existence and challenge people to consider where they belong in this hideous and painful legacy of our colonial past. It is equally clear that the Apology was a single event with multiple outcomes, outcomes that are still unfolding. So, this apology is not a simple transfer from giver to receiver — as in a ‘sorry’ followed by ‘I forgive you’. We might understand it not as a closed exchange, but as an offer for ongoing consideration beyond the moment it is made. Within this space of reflection and consideration — keeping in mind that this was one man, the prime minister, apologising for a nation to a minority group of people — are the many personal, individual discourses surrounding what that moment signified, both personally and collectively. The Apology does not retrospectively undo the acts of colonialism; in fact, we should see it as in many ways 1 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, Bringing them home: Report of National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families , Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, 1997, p.240, http:// www.humanrights.gov.au/pdf/social_justice/bringing_ them_home_report.pdf, viewed 13 February 2013. 2 Ben Haggerty and Ryan Lewis, ‘Same love’ from The Heist [CD], Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Seattle, 2012. 3 Eugenics is the practice of striving to improve the genetic composition and traits of a population of people. The practice, although controversial, has been used throughout history in an attempt to eradicate traits within populations that are considered undesirable, and also to attempt to terminate the existence of entire races of people. Eugenics influenced many national policies throughout the early twentieth century, resulting in enforced institutionalisation, sterilisation and massacre. 4 Aboriginalia is a term that refers to the production of decorative items (such as ashtrays, tea-towels, paintings on black velvet, key-rings, refrigerator magnets and hanging plaques) that depict inaccurate, distorted and derogatory depictions of Indigenous peoples. 5 James Walsh was a British painter and clerk who arrived in Western Australia as a convict in 1854. Walsh’s sketches of Indigenous people depicted caricature-like figures that are now considered to be misrepresentations of Indigenous Australians. 6 Elizabeth Durack (1915 – 2000) was the daughter of pastoralist Michael Patrick Durack. She had longstanding relationships with Indigenous people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, having spent much of her youth on both Ivanhoe and Lissadell cattle stations. Her works of art depict the people and landscape of this region. 7 Richard Ffarrington (1823–55) first travelled to Australia from England in 1841 as a member of the 51st Regiment of Foot . He was a talented draughtsman known for his depictions of the natural world. Ffarrington arrived in Western Australia in 1843 and produced a number of depictions of Nyoongar people. 8 ‘Australian Memes’ group hosted by social media platform Facebook, retrieved 22 February 2013 from https://www.facebook.com/AustralianMemes. 9 Image from the Facebook group ‘Australian Memes’ retrieved 22 February 2013 from https://www.facebook . com/photo.php?fbid=420216888017464&set= pb.356948671010953.-2207520000.1362987668&ty pe=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-d-a. akamaihd.net% 2Fhphotos-ak-snc7%2F599752_420216 888017464_921344148_n.jpg&size=407%2C405. keeping that history alive. Artists such as Cole, Bell, Hookey and Albert retaliate against the get over it mentality, as they should — this process of colonisation will always be one of this nation’s great shames. Their work warns us that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. What I am interested in here, in the artists’ works in this show, is how we can see the Apology as existing in a ‘between state’ where two groups of people are tied together. Keeping this tension alive seems more vital now than it has ever been. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia (and countless other cultural groups worldwide), racism features prominently and manifests in multiple ways — from backhanded jokes, active exclusion, words of hatred, bullying and emotional abuse, to violence and murder. In Australia, racism has and continues to present itself in these and many other ways. Since the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the internet has become the perfect vehicle for inciting racial hatred and asserting extreme nationalist values. Hidden behind a screen, people are able to share their extreme views with the world. These new modes in which to communicate one’s values and beliefs have revealed an undeniably present sub-culture of quasi-extremists in Australia and beyond, a growing number of individuals who are collectively gathering momentum. In 2012, a number of racist groups emerged on Facebook, one of which was called ‘[Controversial humor] Aboriginal Memes’. The page contained images depicting Aboriginal people and featured racist commentary, purportedly controversial yet humorous. Despite public outrage, Facebook did nothing until the Australian Communications Authority began an investigation. Today, 22 February 2013, I again checked to see if such images were still in circulation, and to no surprise a group titled ‘Australian Memes’ is online and includes a number of images that are highly offensive to Indigenous Australians. 8 One of the images, featuring an Indigenous man’s face, the same face which has been used as the central visual in no less than 30 variations, was surrounded by text reading, ‘Sniff a litre of petrol. Go back to the dreamtime’. The title, ‘Australian Memes’, can be read in one of two ways. The first is that these memes comment on Australia’s people and culture. The second reading bestows ownership of this site and its values upon a culturally fractured nation. 9 The Apology is a start, it is a gesture, and we need to remain aware of the fractures it is pitched against as it moves between all Australians. Bindi Cole Wathaurung people VIC Seventy Times Seven (production stills) 2011 HD video, 10:21 minutes, colour, sound, ed. of 5, AP Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program Sorry: Keeping our histories alive 135