Posts Tagged ‘Indigenous Australia’

Native

— Posted on by Sean Batchelor

My Submission for the Australian Infront Virtual Response Competition.

It is based on a page from William Dawes’ notebooks from 1790, the first real documentation of the Aboriginal Language, Dharuk, from the Sydney area.

William Dawes had an incredibly interesting story, as I found on this amazing website. williamdawes.org

He came to Australia with the 1st Fleet as an astronomer, and ended up making the first serious attempt to document the native tongue in the form of 3 notebooks. Importantly, these also captured the sentiments of the Aboriginal people whose conversations he transcribed.

He was asked after some time in the service of the Governor Arthur Phillip to take part in a hunt to decapitate 10 Aboriginal men as revenge for the death of the Governor’s Gamekeeper. Dawes resisted but was eventually persuaded to join the pursuit. After the group returned unsuccessful he expressed his regret in participating and wouldn’t apologise to the Governor for this attitude, making him one of the first Europeans who stood in defence of Aboriginal interests. As a result, Dawes was returned to England, despite his great wish to remain in New South Wales.

He continued to undertake many honourable pursuits including setting up schools for the children of slaves in Antigua.

Whether William Dawes recognised it or not, I think that his documentation of the language would have played a major role in his moral objection. When you speak a foreign language you immediately have a cross cultural experience, and with these experiences you learn and show respect.

Pretty sure this isn’t a winning response, but it was an interesting theme to work with.

Naabangoon…

The Indigenous Voice

— Posted on by Sean Batchelor

Designers have long asserted the influence of their craft on a social and political level. It can be demonstrated (from Jazz, to Nazism) where a visual aesthetic has offered more than a colour scheme throughout the course of history and where the tone of communication has galvanised a message. In this new era, we as professional image makers and thinkers in Australia should be asking what is broken, and what can we do to fix it? What can designers offer to the betterment of Australian life?

One such area of great importance is white understanding and acceptance of indigenous culture. The huge difficulty that has faced Aboriginal people is in communication. Plainly, there is a disconnection in language both spoken (heard) and unspoken (seen). This being the result of a violent and guilty past which is tolerated by most westerners with embarrassed forgetfulness and by Aboriginal people with anger and sorrow.

Western designers and artists working in Australia have, in the past, drawn from Aboriginal motifs in proclamation of our independence and individuality from Britain. It plays well for our global identity. However, the presentation of Aboriginal Culture in this way is perhaps just as damaging, given the ongoing national struggle to fully accept and respect the original owners of our country. The plagiarism of indigenous motifs and symbols in this way is simplistic and disrespectful.

Designers today should in all cases present the true sense of what being Australian means, in politically focused messages and – more importantly – in the everyday visual media. It is necessary for this to have within it, an understanding of Aboriginal culture and language. Australian design, fashion, hospitality, entertainment and especially big business should all be open to the recognition of this cultural asset as part of the make up of their visual identity. The result of this would be a collaborative achievement and Australia would benefit for the shared experience, with reconciliation as a natural progression.