Truth about our history can liberate us all
The art world helps to fill the void on indigenous reality, writes Bill Handbury
THE Federal Government’s rejection of the Uluru Statement was callous, damaging and unjustified. Thankfully the art world is taking up the challenge. And no one does it better than accomplished artist Julie Gough, who has portrayed the heartache of indigenous abuse with a fearless sensitivity over many years. Currently her work is at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria and Tarrawarra.
The TMAG exhibition “The National Picture: the art of Tasmania’s Black War” together with the NGV’s “The Colonial Wars” are outstanding examples of truth-telling. When these exhibitions are put with Mark McKenna’s Moment Of Truth Quarterly Essay and the Uluru Statement, the shameful record of indigenous abuse by governments over 50 years becomes apparent. Abuse is not something that just happened in the distant past. It prevails today.
Successive governments have acknowledged the serious nature of indigenous problems. They are many and they are deep-seated. Their reaction has been to allocate considerable funds and bureaucratically designed social programs as a panacea. Unsurprisingly they have continually failed, and they will continue to fail until the core of indigenous abuse is addressed. The missing link is truth-telling. Sadly governments have used the ploy of evasiveness to escape this responsibility.
The Uluru Statement simply seeks truth-telling to enable two very different cultures to live side-by-side harmoniously. Decency demands acceptance.
Our Federal Government knows Australia was invaded, indigenous culture was smashed and genocide was rampant. This is our nation’s darkest secret, it is our stain.
All the talk, all the money and all the programs will not address the psychological damage indigenous people have suffered and are still suffering. Until honesty prevails, the insidious tag of hapless, hopeless and dependant people will continue. Pride, dignity and confidence must be restored.
Governments have lived in fear of acknowledging the truth. Yet ironically truthtelling is liberating.
A letter has been sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlying the cruelty of rejecting the Uluru Statement, requesting that it should be accepted with sincerity and he should be the first PM to state “In 1788 Australia was invaded”. Leadership is needed. But will we get it? Journalists too have been often delinquent in their duty. They haven’t demanded the PM and his Government accept the Uluru Statement.
So that is the national challenge. Regardless, Tasmania needn’t sit on its hands. Our TMAG has made a first courageous step. This initiative should not be lost.
Every student in Years 10, 11 and 12 should read the Uluru Statement and Mark McKenna, then have a guided tour of the TMAG exhibition. Australian history should be compulsory in secondary school. These measures are worthwhile for all Tasmanians. Do this and see where public opinion sits. It will certainly dispense with ignorance.
The truth of history must be taught. And it’s not all black. Over the last 50,000 years there are some remarkable and wonderful achievements that should be celebrated. It starts with the rock art in the Kimberly which arguably is the best visual art ever produced. This is expressive art that tells us so much about people of that time. See Ian Wilson’s Lost World Of the Kimberly. And a surprise for many farmers is that many indigenous practices are superior to the history of white farming and even some practices today (See Charles Massey’s The Call Of The Reed Warbler).
The truth matters, decency matters, it’s time isn’t it?