Art and Memorialisation

This edited volume reflects on the profound effort undertaken by artists to contest settler denial and amnesia to disclose Australia's foundations in racialised violence and land theft. The book examines how First Nations creative and cultural practitioners have turned to the unique spaces of art and culture to remember and mourn the profound loss of life caused by British invasion and colonisation in the absence of official commemoration and public acknowledgement of the damage caused. It significantly focuses on a number of creative practitioners driving this powerful memory-work, containing contributions from some of the leading thinkers on truth-telling through creative practice, including Fiona Foley, Dianne Jones, Vicki Couzens, Julie Gough, r e a, Tony Birch, Paola Balla, Neika Lehman, Arlie Alizzi, Charmaine Papertalk Green, Kate Golding, Odette Kelada and Clare Land. An important contribution to scholarship on the public memorialisation of difficult histories, this significant edited collection foregrounds First Nations, female, queer, trans and gender diverse artists and scholars from the continent that is known as 'Australia'. Taken together these deeply researched, considered texts, poems and conversations lend vital, critical perspectives on the ways artists are confronting settler colonial Australia’s toxic colonial memorial culture of denial. This book recognises that through a range of creative means and mediums, artists and cultural practitioners are making essential contributions to truth-telling, devising evocative, sensitive ways to make the injustices committed against First Peoples not only visible and tangible, but also strongly felt and grieved.