“TO TELL THE TRUTH”

Aretha Brown

These four light-boxes installed in Meyers Place Laneway by tell the story of colonialism here in Australia, from pre-cook to the present day. I wanted this work to read like a comic book. With each of the four panels telling a narrative about the plight of my people.

“PEACE”

The first panel shows a mother and her Bub. This panel represents pre-cook Australia. Where we looked after lore and our waterways in a way that was sustainable that kept our country healthy for tens of thousands of years.

“COLONY”

The second, is about the first contact. I always think about the mob who would have first seen the endeavor and first fleet roll into Botany Bay only 230 years ago. What they would have been thinking, and how alien the first British colonizers would have seemed. I think coming out of lockdown and reflecting on COVID, thinking about how easily disease would have spread during the early colonial contact. The spread of disease is an act of warfare, especially against indigenous peoples.

“STRUGGLE”

The third panel is about struggle. About being constantly policed, ridiculed, and worked. First Nations people are so hard-working, but we have never seen the financial gain for all the work we have done. My grandma was stolen generation and worked for years as a glorified slave, paid virtually nothing, and bettered the lives of another white family. I am affected by history today. It’s in my veins and it informs everything I do.

“TODAY”

The last panel is about the blak experience today. It feels like the city, it feels like displacement and like pollution. This represents to me, how I relate to the notion of living in a developed city and how that translates to my notion of “country”. I don’t draw native trees because I don’t see them, I don’t draw native animals because where I live all I see are neighbourhood dogs and maybe the odd possum. What country means to me, probably differs from Mob who live in more regional areas, but my reality is in no way less real. Every Aboriginal person’s experience navigating life within our colony is valid and important.