Aboriginal Stone artifacts. Photograph: Julie Clarke, 2010
Pelican feather apron - Aboriginal Australian artifact. Photograph: Julie Clarke, 2010The images above are just some of the Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artifacts on display in the 'Two Laws' exhibition at the Museum of Victoria. Each of the stones (flaked spear heads and cutting tools) was inscribed with the year and the place where the artifact was found. Whilst this may have been interesting from an anthropologists point of view, I perceived the written words and numbers as an imposition of one culture over another, a blemish on an otherwise beautiful and natural form.
The Pelican Feather apron was exquisite and I can only think that it celebrates Goolay-Yali the Pelican, an integral player in Dreamtime - the Aboriginal creationist story that weaves the physical, human and sacred worlds together.
There were other artifacts in this exhibition, spears, masks, photographs, stories from the past and stories that continue to infiltrate the now. Read alongside the permanent exhibition 'Koori Voices', one can see and hear the anger and frustration as well as the joy.
As I navigated through this complex dialogue with Indigenous culture I was left thinking that much of it was about loss, what had been salvaged and what remains important. I think that the following passage from an Internet site on Aboriginal Art and Culture puts our confusions about Indigenous diversity very well:
'Sometimes non-Aboriginal people get confused by the great range and variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, from the traditional hunter to the Doctor of Philosophy; from the dark-skinned to the very fair; from the speaker of traditional languages to the radio announcer who speaks the Queen's English. The lesson to be learned from this is that we should not stereotype people ; that people are different, regardless of race'.
http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html
The Pelican Feather apron was exquisite and I can only think that it celebrates Goolay-Yali the Pelican, an integral player in Dreamtime - the Aboriginal creationist story that weaves the physical, human and sacred worlds together.
There were other artifacts in this exhibition, spears, masks, photographs, stories from the past and stories that continue to infiltrate the now. Read alongside the permanent exhibition 'Koori Voices', one can see and hear the anger and frustration as well as the joy.
As I navigated through this complex dialogue with Indigenous culture I was left thinking that much of it was about loss, what had been salvaged and what remains important. I think that the following passage from an Internet site on Aboriginal Art and Culture puts our confusions about Indigenous diversity very well:
'Sometimes non-Aboriginal people get confused by the great range and variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, from the traditional hunter to the Doctor of Philosophy; from the dark-skinned to the very fair; from the speaker of traditional languages to the radio announcer who speaks the Queen's English. The lesson to be learned from this is that we should not stereotype people ; that people are different, regardless of race'.
http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html
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