My mother’s silence, my nation’s shame
Colonial violence in Australia and New Guinea
Featured in
- Published 20220428
- ISBN: 978-1-922212-71-9
- Extent: 264pp
- Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au
Share article
More from author
Valuing country
EssayIT WAS READING Alexis Wright’s novel Carpentaria (Giramondo, 2006) in 2007 that introduced me to the idea of ‘country’: land as a living being...
More from this edition
Speaking up
EssayThe modern Australian incarnation of truth-telling that emerged from the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017 came not from dictatorship and civil war, as had truth-telling in the Latin American ‘radical democracies’ of the 1990s, which pioneered transitional justice. Instead, it derived from local people devising local solutions.
Supercut
In ConversationQuestioning the past is a vital part of my role as an artist. Art has the influence to shape the way we think and perceive the world, as it has throughout history. I’m motivated by the desire to improve and do better, and the same goes for how I want my art career to proceed. The need to do better in the future is predicated on the fact that to do so, we need to revisit and interrogate the past. This is especially important in a country such as Australia, founded on colonial violence and with a legacy of racism that persists today.
They cannot say their thoughts
(or, If Cohen sang Oodgeroo)
PoetryDance me to the rhythm of a language (I don’t speak) ’Neath sapphire-misted mountains they might kill (ya) Breathe out brokin holy in this land of...