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

Hopes, Dreams and Nightmares

Picture
This series explores the conflict over land between the early European farmers and Aboriginal people from Southern and Eastern Australia. Today, the Australian farming landscape has been cleared and Indigenous cultural landmarks removed. As an Aboriginal person, I have always viewed the farming landscape as a battlefield. The unploughed parts of a wheat field, a cypress pine standing alone in a paddock or a pile of rocks in the field symbolise a darker past to the landscape, something left untouched and un-farmed for a reason.
 
As a child, my Father would tell me stories of conflict between the Aboriginal people and the first European families who farmed there. My grandmother would tell my Father the stories of what the first farmers did to the Indigenous people there, and as a result my Father would have nightmares of the atrocities committed on their lands. He would also tell me of the terrible places that have never been farmed on because what lay beneath. In my eyes, this is only one story from the millions of farms across Southern and Eastern Australia.

Proudly powered by Weebly