Diaspora
Diaspora mixed media artwork on 40 individual canvases
I often muse about what it means to be Australian and what our shared value’s actually are. This has been described as the land of milk and honey, a place where we get a fair go, mate-ship, true blue, sporty, sun kissed, surfers, lifesavers, bronzed Aussies, larrikins, cricket…… are these our values or just images of our society we like to project out to the world.
Yesterday is Australia Day, ( or more rightly - Invasion Day) celebrated on the day Captain Cook landed on this continent and the beginning of genocide unspeakable.
I think this day should be a Memorial Day. For those who have been displaced from their lands, for those who were shipped like so much cattle as convicts for petty crime, for those who have been cannon fodder in too many wars not of our making, for the stolen children, for those who come here as refugees from lives marked by terror, for those who have been brutalised by systems unbreakable.
More so than Anzac Day—-lest we forget
Let us go forward with humility, generosity, respect and kindness.
Back in 2010 I attended a bbq and asked everyone what they thought about being Australian. The work I made from those conversations is called Diaspora. I made it as part of my Masters degree in Contemporary Art. My conclusion after much research and conversation was that Australia today is, as many countries today, are a melting pot of many and various diasporas. This work looked at the Australians in the region I live and where they come from. Germans, Irish, Chinese, South Sea Islanders, Africans, Afghans, Italian, Dutch…. have all been here as long as white Anglo Saxons. I have been lucky enough to work with many Indigenous elders and communities in this region too and the connection to place is still strong in these proud and resilient people.
Diaspora was made up of images from the archives and quotes from conversations on Australia Day. Each small square canvas bears a photographic image of the Australians of the diaspora…each image stitched to the canvas in a songline that connects us all.
