Saturday midday Weston Park Canberra
in 2010 I heard the author Kate Grenville talk about the power of the arts to change the way we think. She told the story of being asked to talk at the festival of Big Ideas or some such gathering about climate change. She wondered what she could contribute as a writer of fiction to the discourse that had not been said by journalists, scientists, educators, politicians and environmentalists.
While pondering this she found herself wandering through a park in Canberra and came across the memorial for the Siev X. On reading the didactic plaque she was saddened but somewhat neutral. On taking a closer look at the public art she came to a part of the work that traced the shape of the boat which had held the 353 people looking for a better life. The Siev X had sunk and all on board perished. When she grasped the significance of the size of the boat, the number of people who had died, the age, the effort of the collaboration to create the memorial she was moved deeply. The words alone had not moved her but the artwork itself had a visceral effect. She recounted how at that point she realised the power of art to speak to us in ways that create shifts in perspectives, create new neural pathways….She also realised that her work could contribute to changing attitudes and viewpoints on matters that were of significance in ways the bare facts could not.
I loved that story and have told it many times ( thank you and apologies if I have paraphrased you somewhat Ms Grenville)
It’s Summer, we are on a road trip, smoke and fires have been part of the landscape everywhere we go. We arrive in Canberra to visit friends who are worried about their house in the path of the Braidwood fires.
The news feeds on social media from the Australian Government claim we are on track to meet the Paris targets. That the 140 fires across Queensland and New South Wales are just the result of a cyclical drought - not climate change.
We are travelling in a ute loaded with kayaks, bikes and camping gear. We cycle through the city centre which is shrouded in smoke from the nearby bush fires. Parliament House complete with nearby tent embassy looms large in the haze. The national monuments and institutions, the ordered streets and the lake.
The thing I want to see most is the memorial to the Siev X. We paddle across the lake, to the park where the memorial is situated. it is a sobering moment. Each pole of the artwork has been created by over 300 schools or community groups across Australia to mark the passing of each of the passengers. It is a protest, a cry for compassion an appeal to our humanity.
The poignancy is not lost on me. This was a controversial artwork in 2001, a collaborative community project a direct plea and expression of community concern and it is situated within cooee of Parliament House and Yaralumla.
As smoke makes my eyes stream and visibility is severely decreased I wonder what a memorial for our planet might look like.
18 years after the Siev X memorial was made the Australian government has decided that we should no longer have a department with a major focus on the arts. If we cannot rely on government to support the arts as an integral part of our children’s education and as a fundamental expression of our nations identity then so be it.
We will just have to find other ways to raise our voice and shift perspectives.
