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Sorry, Didn't See You There

Sonakshi Weerackody
Write About Art 5
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There was always one particular question on multiple choice exam papers that used to irk me far more than any other. Was it a complex abstract reasoning question? Perhaps one which offered the baffled student four seemingly identical answers? No, this question preceded even question one: ‘Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent?’

If a student colours in the ‘yes’ bubble as their answer, they often gain extra credit. I struggled to understand why this categorising question is necessary on our papers. Do people believe that those of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent are incapable of achieving to the same standard as others? Or does this question simply act as compensation from a guilty government, knowing that their own ancestors’ malicious and egotistical actions may have left many of these individuals in a hopeless state, without adequate education? If we are unsure of the capabilities of Indigenous Australians, how do we make sense of the success and impact of contemporary Indigenous artists?

I had a chance to think about these questions as I followed the curator of the Gallery of Modern Art, Bruce McLean, around the exhibition, ‘My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia’, mouth agape. I was abruptly confronted with three simple, yet gripping words: ‘I forgive you’. What I saw was Bindi Cole’s exquisite emu-feather covered artwork of the same name (2012). I knew immediately that this was an answer to Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Indigenous in 2008, emphasised by the use of emu feathers, which to the aboriginal people are deeply meaningful. Emu feathers glued by blood to the feet were used by aboriginal people to walk without... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Bindi Cole, Wathaurung people, I forgive you (installation view), 2012. Emu feathers on MDF board, 11 pieces: 100 x 800cm (installed, approx.). Purchased 2012. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA. © Bindi Cole Chocka/Licensed by Viscopy, 2014.

Bindi Cole, Wathaurung people, I forgive you (installation view), 2012. Emu feathers on MDF board, 11 pieces: 100 x 800cm (installed, approx.). Purchased 2012. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA. © Bindi Cole Chocka/Licensed by Viscopy, 2014.