Journal article
Marriage of an Aboriginal 2018
Synnyt Origins, Vol.2 (Special Issue: InSEA Congress 2018: Scientific and Social Interventions in Art Education), pp.328-343
01/08/2019
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Abstract
My artwork investigates key questions of storying as research using the 1848 marriage of my paternal Great Great Grandfather (GGF) as a catalyst. A key question that arises in the Australian settler colonial context, is ‘Where do you belong?’ particularly if your paternal ancestry is shrouded in darkness, with little information available about the history of intermarriage and Aboriginal ancestry. Using arts-based A/r/tographic research my artworks comprise lightbox’s, aprons, documents, embroidery and a performance. Alongside the visual components of the artwork, I sit, sew and stitch, staging a “visual encounter” to embody my ancestry in contemporary form. The artworks bring previous entanglements and being into current receptivity. Re-examining lived conditions and moralities of early colonial Australia, when my ancestor as an Aboriginal black stood alongside his white marriage partner brings new assemblages and wordly sensibilities into view. The marriage was one of only a handful of reported intermarriages in the early days of colonial Australia. Text about my GGF from an 1848 Sydney Morning Herald (*SMH) article reports on the “Marriage of an Aboriginal”. Hence the name of my artwork highlights the disembodied way that my ancestor was spoken about. The psychological metaphor relating to the exhibition theme of Dark Days/White Nights engages text and interrogates colour binaries to powerfully highlight how cultural divides and quasi acceptance of diversity as ‘novelty’ and ‘industriousness’ can be reconsidered and disclosed as micronarratives of colonisation with resonance today.
Details
- Title
- Marriage of an Aboriginal 2018
- Creators
- K Snepvangers - University of New South Wales
- Publication Details
- Synnyt Origins, Vol.2 (Special Issue: InSEA Congress 2018: Scientific and Social Interventions in Art Education), pp.328-343
- Comment
- Initially the journal had gained a name “Synnyt/Origins: Finnish Studies in Art Education”, which in Fall of 2019 was changed to “Research in Arts and Education”.
- Publisher
- Aalto University
- Identifiers
- 991012935085702368
- Copyright
- The journal grants an open access to all publications and is ranked in the publication forum of Finnish academic research.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article