| SHADOW OF EMPIRE |
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"I don't know if this "Brindle Style" is not the worst case of cultural appropriation in the history of man and European culture. " - Oscar Wilde.
FROM BOUNDARY ROAD TO BOUNDARY STREET
Turns out it's "Australia" who needs "RECOGNITION"
There is something about the lay of the land in Meanjin - Brisbane - especially on Jagera Country near MUSGRAVE PARK and the great ridge of Mt Coot tha. It's BIG Land, ORIGINAL Land, alive with story, grounded in spirit and whispering ideas tested over thousands of years. This place holds it's Originality, BECAUSE of it's size?
In the shadow of skyscrapers and rising from colonial foundations. Is it Kingsland now? Or is it still Queens Land for ol' Queen Wikitoria standing solemn outside the ol' TREASURY! In the shadow of Big Money. The NEW 'Treasury' the GAMBLING mecca for the STAR Entertainment Group? Billions of dollars shuffle around amid accusations of money laundering in 2025.
And we're still asking Who gets to tell the story of this place? And even more urgently - who's listening?
On the Other Side of the Continent
In Boorloo the Boundary Road heads to Meeandip. Garden Island. Now home to a nuclear submarine base.
And setting up 2027 to RECIEVE UK AND US NUCLEAR SUBMARINE waste.
TRANSNATIONALISM! Cloud countries. THAT'S SOME Explaining to do
On nearby KARRAKATTA Hill. Once known as "the hill of the spiders" you can see far in every direction. From Kings Park - or is it Queens park for ol Wikitoria standing solemn amid her cannons. To the War Memorial.
The tension between ReMembering and forgetting lives in the landscape.
A people fed on American tv and weaned on the internet, assimilated into a colonisation narrative are now programmed to forget the question.
What was this "Australia" trying to be before Empire changed hands from Britain to the United States?
What did GO FORWARD mean back in the 1970s?
"WHAT ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN?"
A fiercely independent visionary artist, an outsider in every sense - Norma McCarthy never stopped challenging the establishment.
She knew first hand the neglect of insitutions and the betrayals of class and religion. But she also encountered unexpected solidarity:Yalanji people, Japanese travellers, queers, punks, Irish Larrikins and the youth stumbling through a world shaped by globalism.
Norma's insights forged through the lived exerience, resonate louder now than ever.
She understood something crucial, the people who once defined "Australia" - the working classes, the eccentric, the marginal were being written out of their own story.
In todays cultural and political conversation, much attention has (rightly) been placed on Recognising First Nations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, but what if another layer of ReCognition is needed for the "ordinary" Australian.
Not a stereotype. Not the tabloid headline. Not the shitposters on fake accounts on cloud media. - But the complex, multicultural, quiet, class diverse population who've lived, worked, drank and built together across boundaries of race and geography.
The disappearance of Australia -the one Norma and many others of us tried to articulate is entwined with globalisation of identity, the buy and sell of culture and local media product.
The Disappearing Australian.
Todays cultural memory is shaped by foreign conglomerates. Stories are replaced with advertisements. Food is product. News became narrative. And politics became reality television. It would be funny if it weren't so EASY to fool SOME of the people - All of the TIME. If it hadn't fed generations a diet of disconnection, alienation and commercial mimicry. Monkey see monkey do.
Its no wonder when asked who we are many stumble. A nation once dreaming of egalitarianism is caught in the churn and charm of influence. American exceptionalism, British nostalgia and global capital.
GLOBAL SYSTEMS DONT CARE IF YOURE BLACK, WHITE OR BRINDLE AND NEITHER DO WE - BUT FOR ENTIRELY DIFFERENT REASONS. COMMUNITIES CARE AND SO DO ARTISTS, THINKERS, ELDERS, THOSE WHO KEEP LISTENING, CREATING, REMEMBERING.
Still, We Rise
BRINDLE STYLE - the cultural production platform has done exactly that: listening, creating, remembering. Without funding, affilliation or institutional permission it has reached millions. It has mapped culture, sparked conversation and remained gloriously unprofessional in the most professional way: honest raw and real. We have our own stories and we must remember them.
A Time for Real Conversations.
"The people who do not cultivate their memory will never be able to construct their own history and will lack independence and sovereignty. They will not be able to interpret their past, confront the present or project their future."
- Tupac Amaru II (1738 -1781) A leader in the Peruvian struggle for independence. ***************************************************
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