Essay Idea

Whilst reading the article 'Who owns the past? Aborigines as captives of the archives', by Henrietta Fourmile, (1989), I came across a quote that sparked both interest and questions inside that I may use as a topic for my final essay.

"The past is the possession of those in power; the past belongs to the victor."

In this section of the article it went onto compare the Aboriginal people to the Native Indians of North America and how the white settlers came and claimed these new lands and of everything that resided upon it. The white settlers were then the sole owners of the Native Indian culture and its histories, as far as they were concerned, because they held power. The article implies that the European settlers have taken a similar approach when they relocated to Australia.

Further along in the article it mentioned this;

"To be an Aborigine is having non-Aboriginies control the documents from which other non-Aboriginies write their version of our history."

I find this quote shocking, but only because of its relevance in today's society. Western society has taken control of so many different cultures purely because we hold power and believe that we are helping these other cultures by managing their affairs. Whilst the west holds so much power, these other cultures are forced to conform to the ways of Western Civilisation and abandon their own ways of life and cultural practices. When you read history books of these cultures, more often than not, they have been written by western anthropologists who have studied these cultures, they don't actually belong to them. So how on earth are these people going to have a true understanding of the history and cultural significance of certain events and customs within these other civilisations?

From an art point of view, I look and see how the influence of Western Civilisation has evolved the traditional art style of the Indigenous people - not necessarily in a positive way. When we look at very early traditional Indigenous Art there is so much we don't understand, but to the native people there is such depth in meaning and story telling within these paintings that is used to teach the next generation the ways of the people. However, as time has progressed, these traditional artists have been forced out by the pressure to conform to the direction of non-indigenous art directors and audiences. There is much desire for Indigenous art nowadays, but not necessarily in its true context - people just want the beautiful colours and patterns and textures to admire. And the market surge for this art style has resulted in exploitation of Indigenous artists, whereby non-Indigenous art dealers and curators have taken almost half of the profit for their own, and due to carefully placed obstacles and barriers the Indigenous people have their hands tied.