Abstract
In 2014 Fiona Foley, one of Australia’s most influential contemporary artists, curated a public art installation with eight of her contemporaries in an iconic heritage site: The Great Court at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. While there is a long tradition of Indigenous artists speaking to power in public places and Foley is one of its most incisive practitioners, Courting Blakness was unique. This temporary exhibition spoke directly to the Great Court’s commissioned public art though it was not, itself, commissioned by the University. Instead, for the weeks it was on site, the selected artworks both complemented and contested official representations of the university, the state of Queensland and Indigenous people within the broader story of the nation carved into the university’s stone buildings.
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Notes
- 1.
When we refer to ‘race’ in this chapter, we are not evoking concepts of biological or cultural difference nor are we referring to ‘civilizational’ values. Anti-racist movements within universities and activist spaces insist on the distinction between the propositions that there are different types of human beings – on one hand – and that there are different ways of being human - on the other hand. The experiences we will relate highlight the challenges of dispensing with the former in social contexts forged by white settler-colonialism.
- 2.
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive: Property, Power and Indigenous Sovereignty (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015), xiii.
- 3.
Rauna Kuokkanen, Reshaping the university: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of the Gift (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011), 84–8.
- 4.
Official Opening event of Courting Blakness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizBt-Cf4w0
- 5.
For Fiona Foley’s curatorial vision, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwCbkJoit6s; for Fiona Nicoll’s discussion of the vision for learning, discovery and engagement, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXKPHCSLh4I
- 6.
For a detailed report on the project’s scope and accomplishments see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XwCFvPFXR-2XaPto6RG4cCNzbEU3Kv9L/view?usp=sharing and appendices: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__HQbOA-U1fLXvoPHnMc-L8V3SZ__RyC/view?usp=sharing
- 7.
See theoretical rationale for the importance of ‘telling stories’ provided by critical race and feminist theorist, Malinda Smith in “Gender, Whiteness and “other Others” in the Academy,” in States of race: Critical race feminism for the 21st century ed. Sherene Razack et al. (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2010), 42–43.
- 8.
For a rigorous and comprehensive critique of deficit approaches to education see David Gilmour, Racism in Education: Coincidence or Conspiracy (NY/London: Routledge, 2008).
- 9.
See Sara Ahmed on the ‘non-performativity’ of anti-racism in On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 116–121.
- 10.
For a detailed account of this work and of Fiona Foley’s impact on Australian art and public discourse see Helmrich, Michele ed. Fiona Foley: Forbidden (Sydney and St Lucia: Museum of Contemporary Art and The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2010), 22.
- 11.
See John East, “Jack F Hennessy, Architect of the Great Court at The University of Queensland,” Fryer Folios, 91 (2014) 15. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O4XF7xutbgVqClawhNK2j38bJPk-yduz/view?usp=sharing
- 12.
See Katrina Schlunke, “A blak woman walks through a blakened landscape,” in Courting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University ed. Fiona Foley et al. (St Lucia: The University of Queensland Press, 2015), 53.
- 13.
The notable exception to this narrative is the Michie building archway carvings by the second Great Court Sculptor, Rhyl Hinwood. Hinwood actively recognized Indigenous knowledge as recorded both in the historical archives of the first settler-colonists and through the poetry of Indigenous activist and public intellectual Oodgeroo Noonuccal. For more information see appendix to outcomes report, 62–68. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__HQbOA-U1fLXvoPHnMc-L8V3SZ__RyC/view?usp=sharing
- 14.
See interview with Brisbane based activist, Sam Watson in The Aboriginal Tent Embassy: Sovereignty, Black Power, Land Rights and the State ed. G. Foley et al. (New York/London: Routledge, 2014), 128; and Lila Watson’s explanation of Indigenous knowledge at the launch of the Courting Blakness project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SymcJZ066w
- 15.
For more on this case, see Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (Australia: Penguin, 2009).
- 16.
See Fiona Foley, The Art of Politics/the Politics of Art: The Place of Indigenous Contemporary Art (Southport, Qld: Keeaira Press, 2006).
- 17.
Theodor Adorno, Critical Models. The Meaning of Working Through the Past. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 91.
- 18.
See Michael Aird, Captured: Early Brisbane photographers and their Aboriginal Subjects (Brisbane: Museum of Brisbane, 2014); see also Calling the Shots: Aboriginal Photographies, ed. Jane Lydon (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014).
- 19.
See interview with Ryan Presley at the Courting Blakness project launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0MCdhNxa0s
- 20.
Zala Volcic provides an international perspective at the project launch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqSDX6NqNyU
- 21.
See introduction to project here at the launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-bTQKqwQGE
- 22.
See Kuokkanen, Reshaping the University, 83–85.
- 23.
The university policy that Courting Blakness directly responded to was “Educational Principles on Indigenous Australian Matters” (2007) aimed to ‘… develop strategies to improve the understanding of students and staff of Indigenous issues and to recognize the importance and contribution of Indigenous knowledge as an emerging discipline.’ See Katelyn Barney, Teaching, Learning and Enacting the Education Principles of Indigenous Australian matters (EPIAM) at The University of Queensland (The University of Queensland, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit, 2012), 4.
- 24.
See Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson, Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia (Melbourne: Arena Publications, 2007); and Alissa McCoun, “Aboriginality and the Northern Territory intervention,” Journal of Political Science, 46 (2011) 517.
- 25.
See Fiona Nicoll on the semiotic regime of the Australian War Memorial – a piece of architecture built around the same time as the Great Court and influenced by interwar theories of white racial superiority in From Diggers to Drag Queens: Configurations of Australian National Identity (Sydney: Pluto Press, 2001).
- 26.
For a detailed argument about the limitations of the ‘politics of recognition’, see Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and for an explanation of why this type of politics continues to fail Indigenous youth, see Jaskiran Dhillon, Indigenous Youth, Decolonization, and the Politics of Intervention (Toronto: UTP, 2017), 71, 178.
- 27.
See interview with Archie Moore at the Courting Blakness project launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kNfGQaLE7s
- 28.
Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks; Jaskiran Dhillon, Indigenous Youth, 71, 178.
- 29.
Bronwyn Fredericks, “Of Old and New: Messages Conveyed by Australian Universities,” in Courting Blakness, ed. Fiona Foley et al., 78; 80.
- 30.
Sara Ahmed, On Being Included, 175.
- 31.
See two of my documentary clips: (1) students’ response to the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6SBxRKioMo; and (2) a short montage of the exhibition and symposium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EueoJsZCU0
Bibliography
Adorno, Theodor. Critical Models. The Meaning of Working Through the Past. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.
Ahmed, Sara. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.
Aird, Michael. Captured: Early Brisbane photographers and their Aboriginal Subjects. (Brisbane: Museum of Brisbane, 2014).
Altman, Jon, and Melinda Hinkson. Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia. Melbourne: Arena Publications, 2007.
Barney, Katelyn. Teaching, Learning and Enacting the Education Principles on Indigenous Australian matters (EPIAM) at The University of Queensland. St Lucia: The University of Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit, 2012.
Coulthard Glen Sean. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Dhillon, Jaskiran. Indigenous Youth, Decolonization, and the Politics of Intervention. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
East, John. “Jack F Hennessy, Architect of the Great Court at The University of Queensland.” Fryer Folios, 91 (2014): 15–19.
Foley, Fiona. The Art of Politics/the Politics of Art: The Place of Indigenous Contemporary Art. Southport, Qld: Keeaira Press, 2006.
Foley, Fiona, Louise Martin-Chew, and Fiona Nicoll eds. Courting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University. St Lucia: The University of Queensland, 2015.
Foley, Gary, Andrew Schaap, and Edwina Howell eds. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy: Sovereignty, Black Power, Land Rights and the State. New York/London: Routledge, 2014.
Fredericks, Bronwyn. “Of Old and New: Messages Conveyed by Australian Universities.” In Courting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University edited by Foley Fiona, Louise Martin-Chew and Fiona Nicoll, 78-87. St Lucia: The University of Queensland Press, 2014.
Gilmour, David. Racism in Education: Coincidence or Conspiracy. New York/London: Routledge, 2008.
Helmrich, Michele ed. Fiona Foley: Forbidden. Sydney and St Lucia: Museum of Contemporary Art and University of Queensland Art Museum, 2010.
Hooper, Chloe. The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island. Camberwell, Vic: Penguin, 2009.
Kuokkanen, Rauna. Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of the Gift. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.
Lydon, Jane ed. Calling the Shots: Aboriginal Photographies. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014.
McCoun, Alissa. “Aboriginality and the Northern Territory Intervention.” Journal of Political Science, 46 (2011): 517–532.
Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. The White Possessive: Property, Power and Indigenous Sovereignty. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Nicoll, Fiona. From Diggers to Drag Queens: Configurations of Australian National Identity. Sydney: Pluto Press, 2001.
Shlunke, Katrina. “A blak woman walks through a blakened landscape.” In Courting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University edited by Foley Fiona, Louise Martin-Chew and Fiona Nicoll, 50–59. St Lucia: The University of Queensland Press, 2015.
Smith, Malinda. “Gender, Whiteness and “other Others” in the Academy.” In States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century edited by Sherene Razack, Sunera Thobani and Malinda Smith, 37–58. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2010.
Acknowledgements
In addition to Fiona Foley and the eight participating artists, hundreds of other people including staff members, volunteers and students contributed to the success of Courting Blakness. Their work is acknowledged in the Outcomes Report cited in this chapter. Fiona Nicoll would like to give special acknowledgement here for the thoughtful and compassionate labors of Dr. Catherine Lawrence; as assistant project manager, she ran the volunteer program and was active across the university in securing support for the project throughout its life and beyond.
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Foley, F., Nicoll, F., Volcic, Z., O’Donnell, D. (2019). Creative Frictions in the Neoliberal University: Courting Blakness at The University of Queensland. In: Bottrell, D., Manathunga, C. (eds) Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume I. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95942-9_9
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