Field of Dreams
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FIELD OF DREAMS
Blak Douglas
Paint on canvas
1000mm x 1000mm
2016
Following 228 years of cultural oppression upon the First Nations peoples of this land, Indigenous descendants are now asked to be complicit in being ‘written into’ the very constitution of colonialism.
First came the token gestures of ‘exchange’. Next the massacres, followed by the poisoning. Later, the forced removals and relocations resulting in ‘missions’ and, finally, the ingenious establishment of Land Councils. The most damaging and cancerous was the annihilation of language systems set in place since time immemorial. In one rapid sweep, English would command its dominance and foundation. Since the inception of the colony, several hundred languages have been reduced to just 50 today.
The ‘salt in the wound’ now is that Aboriginal peoples are left with no other option but to sign a departmental legislation that writes them into the his-story books (using the language of the oppressor). As I write this, the current poll statistics show that 86 per cent of ‘Australians’ agree that Indigenous peoples should be written into the CON-stitution.
The quest for rightful acknowledgement here, be it through a treaty, through reconciliation or now a constitutional amendment, is like attempting to push two magnets together.
In this piece, I’ve simply depicted this analogy. The magnets reference the familiar desert-style ‘U-shaped’ figures sitting on the ground at a campsite. They are grey in colour, reflecting the totemic hue of politics and the fact that to be taken seriously, the black wo/man must don a SUIT today. Just as English has become the uniform language, so too have grey suits. The ochre bands forming the background represent the fragmentation of Aboriginal cultures.
