Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID (FRONT AND BACK LABEL DETAIL)

Amala Groom

Cardboard, plastic, paper, Kool-Aid

Dimensions variable

2016

The current Federal Government initiative to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution is a highly complex matter, both legally and politically. Most Australians have never even read the Constitution and, unless you have a legal or political background, engagement with the debate can, for the most part, only be peripheral. To fully appreciate what constitutional recognition signifies, it must be examined in view of the colonial history of Aboriginal affairs. Damien Short, describing the history of the reconciliation movement in Australia, writes:

the treaty campaign gathered momentum in the late 1980s, but was ultimately channelled . . . toward a more equivocal open ended ‘reconciliation’ initiative. The Hawke Government suggested that non- Indigenous Australians needed to be ‘educated’ about the Aboriginal problem before they would be ready for a treaty and consequently that would be one of the priorities of the reconciliation process.¹

Thus, reconciliation thwarted the progress towards treaty. Now Recognise, as an expression of the reconciliation movement, is continuing to thwart treaty via the politics of distraction.

On 18 November 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones and his followers laced Flavor Aid² (a Kool-Aid knock-off) with cyanide, and killed over 900 members of the People’s Temple. Since then, the expression ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ has become a phrase which warns of propaganda and hype. My work implores the viewer not to drink the Kool-Aid that is Recognise and to ask themselves why would we want to be recognised by a government who continues to commit atrocities against our peoples? Why does the Australian Government pursue an agenda of reconciliation (intended to soothe white guilt) rather than work towards acknowledging Aboriginal sovereignty and establishing a treaty?

Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid speaks to the commodification of Aboriginal affairs, by repurposing and repackaging our political capital into a palatable, disposable drink. On the back label of the drink, I have attempted to quantify the total expenditure for the Recognise campaign and the proposed referendum, including funds which have been exhausted, budgeted or earmarked. The total figure of AU$213.1 million falls short of the actual cost; donations, sponsorship and in kind support can never be quantified.

1 Damien Short, Reconciliation and Colonial Power ( Routledge, 2008) 14.

2 Eric Zorn, ‘Change of Subject: Have you drunk the “Kool-Aid” Kool-Aid?’, Chicago Tribune (online), 18 November 2008.