Art as an Experience and a Political Act

This work examines the work of Aboriginal Australian artist Dr Pamela Croft (DVA) and her use of bothways methodology which draws on both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways of seeing the world, exploring relationships, connections and disjunctions and is additionally a site of reconciliation, a tool for heling, an educational experience and a political act. In her utilisation of bothways she presents her individual story and the collective story of Aboriginal peoples. In this her art practice exposes multiple layers of the experiences and impacts of trauma of colonisation and displacement, questions and concepts of identity and whiteness, and personal and collective stories and cultural interpretations. Croft’s works share and reveal secrets and impart knowledge and experiences and hence give power by the reclaiming of individual and communal stories and retelling history using subjugated knowledge. Her works fall into the general practice of intermedia and installation and are offered as an educational experience and as a political act

Making Country Come Alive: Artistic Representations of the Rockhampton Region, Rockhampton Women’s Business Network, Chamber of Commerce, Rockhampton, 6th Nov. 2004, 7.00am

This paper provides a short overview of how Pamela Croft depicts aspects of the Rockhampton Region in her visual arts practice

land home place belong - Pamela Croft

In Pamela Croft’s art works within her solo exhibition I hear, see, feel and sense the importance of tradition, recognition of ancestors, respect for uniqueness in spiritual expression, facilitation of an understanding within the contexts of history and culture, a sense of place, connections to family and community, commitment to educational and social transformation that recognizes and empowers the inherent strength of Aboriginal peoples and cultures and the challenges to non-Aboriginal people to truly listen and absorb in order to move to a place of understanding of the Aboriginal world… The ideal purpose of education is to attain knowledge, seek truth, wisdom, completeness and life as seen by self and others. Story is one of the unique ways of Aboriginal education in both teaching and learning. It is in the story that there is made a place for honouring of self, family, community, place, nature and spirituality. In this exhibition Pamela Croft has revealed many things about her own story, her own journeying and the journey of many other Aboriginal peoples. She has then set each idea, concept and event in contexts that are based on history, place, environment and process which intertwine within one larger story of this country and humanity. Aboriginal learning is generally tied to a place environmentally, socially and spiritually. Indigenous teaching and learning are intertwined with the daily lives of the teacher and the learner. Pamela is both her own teacher and her own learner, she learns from the environment, other people, her community and her culture. She has defined history and place in terms to create a place for learning and for the individuals who participate in this solo exhibition of her work. Thus her words as you enter, “Listen, listen with your ears, listen with your eyes, listen with your body, listen with your spirit, listen”

'We got needs too': Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in urban areas (Speaker's notes)

Despite over 70 % of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia now living in urban or regional urban areas (ABS 2008), there is limited research which highlights their issues or the issues that impact on their education outcomes. The statistics demonstrate that living in urban centres is as much part of reality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as living in a remote discrete community. This paper will explore some of the issues for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples against a backdrop of statistics and some of the current literature. Examples will be highlighted from the South-East Queensland region to expose the need for specific education strategies and programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in this region and in other urbanised regions in Queensland and Australia

Stolen Generations. After the Apology

In Febraury 2008 the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. Frontline asked NTEU Indigenous women to relate their feelings of the day,and how they feel the nation has progressed since. This is what Bronwyn Fredericks said within the article. Other women who have related their thoughts and feelings include: Maree Graham, Alma Mir, Lynette Riley, Nellie Green, Davina B Woods, Frances Wyld, Jenny Caruso, and Helen Bishop. To read what other Indigenous women said about the National Apology go to: http://www.nteu.org.a

Including us, but under whose terms? The epistemology that maintains white race privilege, power and control over Indigenous studies and Indigenous people's participation in Australian universities

This paper represents my attempt to turn the gaze and demonstrate how Indigenous Studies is controlled in some Australian universities in ways that witness Indigenous peoples being further marginalised, denigrated and exploited. I have attempted to do this through sharing an incident through the presentation of a case study. I have opted to write about it as a way of highlighting the problematic nature of racism, systemic marginalisation, white race privilege and radicalised subjectivity played out within higher education institutions and because I am dissatisfied with the on-going status quo. In sharing my experience and bringing some analysis to this case study, I seek to destabilise the relationships between oppression and white race and institutional privilege and the epistemology that maintains them. In moving from the position of being silent on this topic to speaking about it, I am also able to move from the position of object to subject and to gain a form of liberated voice (hooks 1989:9) and to encourage others to examine their own practices within Australian universities

There is Nothing that Identifies me to that Place’: Indigenous Women’s Perceptions of Health Spaces and Places

Indigenous women are more likely to suffer from poor health than non-Indigenous women, usually with one long term condition or several chronic diseases at once.  High psychological distress, asthma, eye problems, diabetes and heart disease are common and we are ten times more likely than non-Indigenous women to have kidney disease. Our life expectancy is sixty-three years compared to non-Indigenous women’s mortality rate of eighty-three years.  The delivery of inclusive health services is thus an important part of improving our life chances. However, even when such services are provided Indigenous women are reluctant to use them. In this article I discuss some of the impediments to the use of such services by considering how Indigenous women configure space and place in their everyday encounters within a health provision context

These Eyes and This Heart Remembers

This socio-political prose is written in the first person narrative and speaks to the issues of family and domestic violence, memory and childhood. It concludes by asking "What do you want your child to remember?

How Australia's Indigenous people are positioned within health service sites by our presence and by our absence

De Certeau (1984) constructs the notion of belonging as a sentiment which develops over time through the everyday activities. He explains that simple everyday activities are part of the process of appropriation and territorialisation and suggests that over time belonging and attachment are established and built on memory, knowledge and the experiences of everyday activities. Based on the work of de Certeau, non-Indigenous Australians have developed attachment and belonging to places based on the dispossession of Aboriginal people and on their everyday practices over the past two hundred years. During this time non-Indigenous people have marked their appropriation and territorialisation with signs, symbols, representations and images. In marking their attachment, they also define how they position Australia’s Indigenous people by both our presence and our absence. This paper will explore signs and symbols within spaces and places in health services and showcase how they reflect the historical, political, cultural, social and economic values, and power relations of broader society. It will draw on the voices of Aboriginal women to demonstrate their everyday experiences of such sites. It will conclude by highlighting how Aboriginal people assert their identities and un-ceded sovereignty within such health sites and actively resist on-going white epistemological notions of us and the logic of patriarchal white sovereignty

Undertaking practice-led research through a Queensland-wide women's history project

This paper focuses on a practice-led research project where the author as artist/researcher participates in a Queensland-wide women’s history project to celebrate Queensland’s Suffrage Centenary in 2005. The author participated in the Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection, where Queensland women were invited to decorate and fill a shoebox with personal and symbolic items that speak about their lives and the lives of their women forebears. This paper explores the practice-led research process that enabled the artist/researcher to design and assemble her contribution. Fredericks describes the iterative process of developing the shoebox and the themes that developed through her artistic practice. She also describes the content of her shoebox and explains the symbolism underpinning the items. The Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection is now owned by the State Library of Queensland and the Jessie Street National Women’s Library