The disregard and ignorance of white Australian’s to First Nation’s culture and to our history of genocide and abuse of the First Nations people is a recurrent theme throughout both art and literature.
Russel Drysdale’s work, The Ruins is a prime example of the ignorance towards Indigenous culture, and the consequences of displacement when enforcing white culture on First Nations people.
Within The Ruins, Drysdale incorporates earthy tones of dry yellow-oranges, deep reds and darker browns in order to depict the typically dry Australian desert. This use of earthy colours also holds significance in its relation to traditional Indigenous Australian artist practices. Drysdale strategically utilises the contrasting iconography of the older clothed man and the younger bare boy to reflect this drift from indigenous culture to modernisation. The younger boy standing as a reflection of the past, and the raw innocent and rich indigenous culture that was forcefully taken from the First Nations. The child’s naked, painted body also embodies the ingrained connection to the land that is as the core of all Aboriginal spirituality. The half dressed older man is a reflection of the white modernisation forced on the indigenous nations, and the stripping of culture that they experienced. The ruined house in the background heightening this underlying themes of cultural destruction and displacement as it is situated almost out of place and destroyed in the desert expanses.
These themes of a disregard of indigenous culture and displacement of indigenous nations is also explored throughout Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance. In particular, this ignorance is explored in the movement of Dr Cross’s body into the cemetery. The glorification of only Dr Cross following his death and the recognition of only his role in the transformation of peoples lives is an overt reppresentation of White Australia’s ignorance. Instead of valuing the relationship he had with Wunyeron and the role they both shared in bringing the white colonists and the Noongar people together. The act of removing his body itself is a direct and purposeful act against indigenous culture, let alone the strategic desecration of Wunyeron’s remains to enhance these themes of ignorance of culture and the destruction of the Noongar way of life.
The presence of these themes of ignorance and the destruction of culture within the works of both Kim Scott and Russel Drysdale which were created over four decades apart proves that these are issues still prominent in our society that are yet to be resolved. Their reflection in pieces of literature and art also enforces this urgency of address and calls its audiences to action.
Image sourced from:
ACU Student Blog 