another bright Brisbane day
Today was gallery/ museum day.. a walk along the south bank through the pathway bordered by bouganvillia, and as it happens past more of these amazing lizards... when I started out it was coolish so many were active out and about before the toursist attention drove them into quieter spots.The 'cultural Centre' is a huddle of modern buildings on the bank, connected by walkways and green spaces most of which have some kind of sculture and a fountain.. in itself a pleasure to walk through. Past/ through the entrance to the queensland museum, on to the State Library which hasa big commitment to indigenous Australians.. so today two exhibitions here took up lots of my time, fortunately in cool conditions (It's now in the low thirties, better than yesterday but stil a bit hot for a great deal of moving aout out of doors).
You know how yuo know a thing intellectually but then you start to know it in your gut? well first sitting in the Tindale exhibition and then browing through the smaller but still eloquent State of Emergency presentation - both in the Library - did it for me about the long standing racism in Oz and spectacularly in Queensland... up till the protests of the eighties started making it harder and harder for white Oz officialdom to avoid change..
Iam surprised that even in this exhibition, Tindale and his team, who went about Queensland measuring aboriginal people and trying to find racial links and distinctions... this in 1938 - is (misre)presented as a 'scientist'... there was no attempt to explain how come the term is still used to apply to his work.. as opposed to the claims made contemporaneousy with his work. The exhibition dealt very closely with the tie - in between what he did and the exploitation bioth morally, materially and legally, of the 'subjects' of his study .. as well as showing how by happenstance the photos and written records he took have provided a knowledge of their families to today's generations that they might never otherwise have had.
The State of Emergency story was one I vaguely remember. 1982! It was STILL the case in Queensland right through the sixties, that indigenous people had NO freedom of movement, access or rights to their own land or income,and could be shuffled around to reserves at the will of whoever found them a niusance... (see 1971 in this link) ...
To change the story completely, I have been hearing about the brisbane floods. At the time Lou had made reassuring noises about how little she & hers had been affected but now I have heard hoa truly awful it actually was. Friends lost everything, and L and their neighbourhood, fortunate not themselves to be at risk, spent much time helping other. in the nearby west end..
The breeze has got up, L is sorting out for our trip tomorrow down to the country in nearby NSW, where we'll stay till friday evening. My next entry may therefore not be till I am on my way home on Saturday...thinking of cold UK, on this bright hot fragrent, colourful, Ozzie evening!
You know how yuo know a thing intellectually but then you start to know it in your gut? well first sitting in the Tindale exhibition and then browing through the smaller but still eloquent State of Emergency presentation - both in the Library - did it for me about the long standing racism in Oz and spectacularly in Queensland... up till the protests of the eighties started making it harder and harder for white Oz officialdom to avoid change..
Iam surprised that even in this exhibition, Tindale and his team, who went about Queensland measuring aboriginal people and trying to find racial links and distinctions... this in 1938 - is (misre)presented as a 'scientist'... there was no attempt to explain how come the term is still used to apply to his work.. as opposed to the claims made contemporaneousy with his work. The exhibition dealt very closely with the tie - in between what he did and the exploitation bioth morally, materially and legally, of the 'subjects' of his study .. as well as showing how by happenstance the photos and written records he took have provided a knowledge of their families to today's generations that they might never otherwise have had.
The State of Emergency story was one I vaguely remember. 1982! It was STILL the case in Queensland right through the sixties, that indigenous people had NO freedom of movement, access or rights to their own land or income,and could be shuffled around to reserves at the will of whoever found them a niusance... (see 1971 in this link) ...
To change the story completely, I have been hearing about the brisbane floods. At the time Lou had made reassuring noises about how little she & hers had been affected but now I have heard hoa truly awful it actually was. Friends lost everything, and L and their neighbourhood, fortunate not themselves to be at risk, spent much time helping other. in the nearby west end..
The breeze has got up, L is sorting out for our trip tomorrow down to the country in nearby NSW, where we'll stay till friday evening. My next entry may therefore not be till I am on my way home on Saturday...thinking of cold UK, on this bright hot fragrent, colourful, Ozzie evening!