james tylor.
  • news
  • art
    • daguerreotypes (new) >
      • where the earth meets the sun (new)
      • the darkness of enlightenment >
        • the darkness of enlightenment I
        • ​the darkness of enlightenment II
        • ​the darkness of enlightenment III (new)
      • we call this place... kaurna yarta
      • te moana nui
      • karrawirra yarta
      • territorial encounters
      • karta (the island of the dead)
      • terra botanica >
        • terra botanica I
        • terra botanica II
      • decookolisation
      • voyage of the waka
      • whalers, sealers and land stealers
      • hopes, dreams and nightmares
      • deheading state
      • act like a man
      • these are our objects
    • collodion >
      • cipx
      • cipx nunga
      • past the measuring stick
    • prints (new) >
      • tapa-arra, through the landscape (new)
      • fire country
      • nguya: the australian smallpox pandemics
      • economics of australia >
        • economics of minerals
        • economics of water
      • turalayinthi yarta
      • the forgotten wars >
        • the forgotten wars I
        • the forgotten wars II
      • kangaroo island
      • aotearoa my hawaiki
      • from an untouched landscape >
        • (deleted scenes) from an untouched landscape
        • (erased scenes) from an untouched landscape
        • (removed scenes) from an untouched landscape
        • (vanished scenes) from an untouched landscape
      • un-resettling >
        • un-resettling (dwellings)
        • un-resettling (happenings)
        • un-resettling (hauntings)
        • un-resettling (huntings)
        • un-resettling (videos) >
          • un-resettling (dome hut with wind break)
          • un-resettling ( a frame hut )
          • un-resettling (dome hut in field) video
    • video >
      • karta pintingga
  • food
    • mai : kaurna contemporary food >
      • mara murdumurdu flatbread
      • mai tarni surf food
      • mai yarlu sea food
      • mai wauwa beach food
      • mai kauwa cliff food
      • mai pari river food
      • mai pangka lake food
      • mai yatala swamp food
      • mai pudna waterhole food
      • mai wama tarnta southern plains food
      • mai nantu wama northern plains food
      • mai tamba flat food
      • mai karra wirra red gum forest food)
      • mai yaki valley food
      • mai mukurta mountain food
    • rations : australian army food
  • design
    • the dwelling (new)
    • inhabiting (new)
    • warpulayinthi (new)
  • text
    • paper >
      • art collector issue 71
      • art collector issue 78
      • art collector issues 88
      • art collector melbourne art fair
      • artlink vol 34 no 2
      • artlink issue 38
      • art monthly issue 291
      • art monthly issue 311
      • art zone issue 58
      • aspire issue 8
      • griffith review issue 63
      • meanjin vol 74 no 1
      • national gallery of victoria
      • the adelaide review issue 447
    • online
    • audio
  • bio
  • cv
  • contact

​​The Darkness of Enlightenment II


​​The Darkness of Enlightenment is a daguerreotype series that explores 19th century European recordings of Kaurna language and culture during the British colonisation of the Kaurna nation in South Australia. This daguerreotype series presents images of the places that were sites of the first contact between European Whalers, British Colonists and Kaurna people. It attempts to highlight the mistakes, mistranslations and loss of knowledge in the social documentation of Kaurna culture by European colonists. Kaurna language and culture has been dramatically impacted over the past 185 years since the British colonisation of South Australia. The speaking of Kaurna language and cultural practices rapidly declined during the 19th century due to the loss of Kaurna lives from the smallpox epidemic, colonial conflict, segregation and assimilation strategies on Christian missions by the British Government in South Australia. 

Kaurna language wasn’t spoken since the 1930s, becoming a sleeping language and culture until it was reawakened in 1989 by the contemporary Kaurna community. It continues to be spoken and practiced to the present day. European recordings by British, German and French colonists of Kaurna language and observations of culture during the 19th century played a vital role in reawakening Kaurna language and culture in the last 30 years. However, the written records created their own challenges in reviving the language and cultural practices. European observers were extremely limited in their understandings of Kaurna knowledge and subsequently their records are full of misrepresentations and mistranslations.

This series highlights the limitations of colonist understandings of Kaurna knowledge, presenting landscapes from the area of the Southern Kaurna region of the Patpangga Fleurieu Peninsula & Karta Pintingga Kangaroo Island where there was first contact between Kaurna people and European whalers and colonial settlers. The daguerreotypes are accompanied by cast bronze Kaurna artefacts and colonial objects that represent the poorly documented interactions with Kaurna people, language and culture on the coastal colonial frontier of South Australia.
Proudly powered by Weebly