I want you to look closely at these two pictures. I wish I could tell you the names of the artists, but I failed to write them down when we saw them in Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. They are by Australian aboriginal artists daring to tell uncomfortable truths about the effects of European settlement on the lives of Aborigines. They are the same truths that could be said, should be said, about the effects of European settlement on the lives of North and South American Indians.
Sadly, to set the stage I need to begin with the most uncomfortable truth of all. In parts of Australia and South America indigenous peoples were hunted sometimes for sport, and always to clear the land of their inconvenient presence. North American European settlers did some of each, but mostly they forcibly moved Indians out of the way through wars and massacres. None of it could have happened were it not for the seldom challenged assumption that they were less than human, or if human, savages in need of forced assimilation into the invading culture as subordinate members. It’s not a history we like to admit. Bringing it up always engenders defensive objections of one kind or another, and why not? Who wants to admit being in the line of succession of such brutal injustice? I certainly don’t. Well, what’s done is done. It can’t be undone, nor can adequate atonement be made. We can only go forward.


The final panel offers 21st century hope. The contemporary age isn’t going away. There is no returning to pre-settlement times. But Aborigines can refuse the evils of the modern age while adapting their culture to take advantage of its benefits. They can reclaim the dignity of their heritage, and claim their rightful place as respected bearers of 50,000 or more years of human history in Australia. They can demand that those of European descent know and understand all that has happened, not to impose guilt, but to evoke a new understanding of shared justice to guide the way into the future. It will not be easy. Prejudices are hard to change. It may take generations, but it is the only hope there is for a future in which there is respect for the dignity of every human being.
They are Australian paintings about Australia and its people, but the lessons are universal.