How lonely lies this land, once so full of people
ORIGINAL OPENING STATEMENT TO THE SCULPTURE SERIES
Welcome to the exhibition of How lonely lies this land, once so full of people.
The 3 churches involved in hosting the exhibition and the artist Michael Henderson acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal people of lutruwita / trouwunna as the traditional owners and custodians of the island on which this exhibition takes place, and pay their respect to the many nations who nurtured this land for millennia and whose sovereignty over it was never ceded.
We lament the reality that we broke trust. That dispossession of these nations was so violent, so comprehensive and so devastating that we are unable to pay our respects to known descendants of all those nations today. However, we are blessed that through profound resilience a remnant of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people survived, passed on their cultural, creative expression and spiritual traditions, and is today thriving. We long for the day when we can embrace each other in wholehearted trust and love. We pay our deep respects to their elders past, present and to the many generations to come.
Below are images, videos and text from the 3 parts of the sculpture series; REMEMBER, WELCOME AND COURAGE.
REMEMBER part 1 of 3
5m high, by 2.4m square. Made from Driftwood, eucalyptus bark, stick, string, acrylic paint and wax.
Originally installed in St Georges Anglican Church, Hobart, June 10 - 17, 2022.
REMEMBER Artist Statement
Without truth-telling and right remembering of the past, I understand there will be no new story together, no trust between us, and no healthy relationship.
I acknowledge that I have not loved, known or valued our Aboriginal brothers and sisters as I wanted to. I desire for this to change.
The ships and boats are both representative and symbolic. They represent me, you, others, communities, ideologies, culture, beliefs, governments, nations. They symbolise journey, change, exploration, taking risks. The ships represent the Non-indigenous communities; the boats the Aboriginal communities.
There is no us and them; there is only a broken human relationship; we are all one humanity. In dealing with this broken relationship we have at times lost our very basic values. If we are to repair this we need to recapture trust, compassion and love for each other.
The art work is like a dream sequence. The dream I had: I saw a three-masted ship sail up the Derwent, initially peaceful, then continue across the land, drop nets and trawl for people before eventually being caught up in its own net. As the boats passed the white line they went from living to dead, and became white, like the stars in the sky.
Original Music by Joel Wybrew. The piece is 10 minutes long.
Detail on art work
- 1803, refers to the landing of the first non-indigenous settlers at Risdon Cove, Tasmania.
- 1830, refers to a key date in the “Black War”, where 2200 settlers, military, police and convicts formed a line and attempted to corral the remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal People to the Tasman Peninsula. This line, depicited here as a “White line”, is commonly referred to as the “Black Line”.
- Netting below the ship trawls the land for the boats
- Netting above the ship and the white line has become dark, like the night sky, and the boats caught up in it are white, like the stars in the sky.
- The ships represent and symbolise the non-indigenous community, and are modelled on the typical English Ship of early settlement. (https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/first-fleet-ships )
- The boats represent and symbolise the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, and are modelled on the typical Tasmanian Aboriginal bark canoe. (https://shapingtasmania.tmag.tas.gov.au/M/object.aspx?id=35 )
Go Deeper
“We failed to ask, How would we feel if it was done to me... We failed to see that what was done degraded us all” (Redfern Address, Paul Keating, 1992. https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul_keating_speech_transcript.pdf )
“Neither violent dispossession nor the pronouncement of the legal fiction of terra nullius annulled your sovereignty and we long for it to shine through as a fuller expression of what it means to be Tasmanian.” (Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty, report prepared by Kate Warner, Tim McCormack and Fauve Kurnadi, delivered to Premier Peter Gutwein, 2021. https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/627242/Pathway_to_Truth-Telling_and_Treaty_251121.pdf )
“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!” (Christian Scriptures, Lamentations 1:1) This is not a statement of no people, but of a lonely place that once flourished with people.
“In the period between the proclamation of martial law in November 1828 and its revocation in January 1832, at least ninety colonists in the Settled Districts were reported killed by the Aborigines… Of the 500 Aborigines in the Settled Districts… an estimated 350 were either killed outright or died from gunshot wounds… In defending their country against the pastoral invaders, the Aboriginal nations in the Settled Districts had indeed paid the supreme sacrifice.”
(Tasmanian Aborigines: A history since 1803, Lyndall Ryan, 2012.)
“The British claim of sovereignty over the eastern half of the continent was an audacious territorial appropriation based on a number of key ideas: that the interior of the great landmass was very likely uninhabited; and that the tribes who lived on the coast had no permanent ties to territory, would abandon the land occupied by the Europeans, and were too primitive to have any political organisation. But colonial experience undermined all of these assumptions…”
(Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, Henry Reynolds, 2021.)
WELCOME part 2 of 3
5m high, by 2.4m square. Made from Driftwood, eucalyptus bark, stick, string, acrylic paint and wax.
Originally installed in Hobart Baptist Church, Hobart, June 10 - 17, 2022.
WELCOME Artist Statement
I will humbly offer a genuine welcome, without force or coercion, and be prepared to listen and wait for a welcome to be offered back from the Tasmanian Aboriginal people in their own time.
The ships and boats are both representative and symbolic. They represent me, you, others, communities, ideologies, culture, beliefs, governments, nations. They symbolise journey, change, exploration, taking risks. The ships represent the Non-indigenous communities; the boats the Aboriginal communities.
There is no us and them; there is only a broken human relationship; we are all one humanity. In dealing with this broken relationship we have at times lost our very basic values. If we are to repair this we need to recapture trust, compassion and love for each other.
The art work is like a dream sequence. The dream I had: I saw us seeing and welcoming each other as Governor Bourke’s proclamation burnt away. I saw ships and boats wrestle out of the net and barbed wire of the past and continue to clear away the things that get in the way of a healthy relationship.
Original Music by Joel Wybrew. The piece is 10 minutes long.
Detail on art work
- The Proclamation written on the paper at the top of the work is from Governor Major General Sir Richard Bourke, 1835. It declared Terra Nullius in Australia, and was written to stop the Non-indigenous Tasmanians attempting to buy land from the Aboriginal communities around what is now Melbourne. (https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-42.html )
- The boats and ships on the base are caught up in the collapsing netting, now entwined with barbed wire. They wrestle to break free.
- The Proclamation Document is burning away.
- The boats and ships near the Proclamation Document are upside down and turned around.
- The holes in the document allow the boats and ships to see each other.
Go Deeper
“Reconciliation Tasmania seeks to assist the many Tasmanians seeking truth and reconciliation in order to make our State more welcoming and informed for all.” (Reconciliation Tasmania, www.rectas.com.au)
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Christian Scriptures, Mark 12:31). Treat others as you would like to be treated.
“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.” (The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown)
“It is clear from the journals of the explorers that few (settlers) were in Australia to marvel at a new civilisations; they were here to replace it.” “To acknowledge the (pre-colonial) history of the country, and the social, agricultural, and philosophical achievements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, does not put the economy at risk. Restoring Aboriginal pride in the past and allowing that past to inform the future will remove the yoke of despair from Aboriginal people.”
(Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe, 2014)
COURAGE part 3 of 3
5m high, by 2.4m square. Made from Driftwood, eucalyptus bark, stick, string, acrylic paint and wax.
Originally installed in St Georges Anglican Church, Hobart, June 10 - 17, 2022.
COURAGE Artist Statement
I will be both brave and vulnerable. I will resist defensiveness, accept what I hear with grace, and choose to use my imagination and courage to create the world I want to see.
The ships and boats are both representative and symbolic. They represent me, you, others, communities, ideologies, culture, beliefs, governments, nations. They symbolise journey, change, exploration, taking risks. The ships represent the Non-indigenous communities; the boats the Aboriginal communities.
There is no us and them; there is only a broken human relationship; we are all one humanity. In dealing with this broken relationship we have at times lost our very basic values. If we are to repair this we need to recapture trust, compassion and love for each other.
The art work is like a dream sequence. The dream I had: I saw a ship intentionally broken and left behind, with people freely joining smaller ships, and sailing away with Tasmanian Aboriginal boats, circling our world together.
Original Music by Joel Wybrew. The piece is 10 minutes long.
Detail on art work
- the ship at the bottom is intentionally broken and left on a shore.
- the rope ladders are tied to this broken ship, and provide a way off the broken ship
- the boats lead the ships away from the broken ship and up toward the earth
- together they travel over Tasmania and around the whole planet, in a movement of people committed to holding courage as we work toward trust in relationships, and ultimately social change.
Go Deeper
“We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.”
(The last line of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/view-the-statement/ )
“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.
Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”
(Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection)
“We seek a new way of cultivating engagement, enriching understanding, and warmly embracing respectful partnership with Tasmanian Aboriginal people. We commit, now and always, to a future that defends, sustains and illuminates Tasmanian Aboriginal culture here at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and throughout Tasmanian life.”
(Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal People, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, https://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/about_us/apology_to_tasmanian_aboriginal_people )
“Clear lots of ground for your tents!
Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
drive the tent pegs deep.
You’re going to need lots of elbow room
for your growing family.
You’re going to take over whole nations;
you’re going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed.
Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short.
You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.”
(Taken from Christian Scriptures Isaiah 54:3-6, as a response to the Lamentations 1:1 passage referenced in REMEMBER)
