MALGA GURLBARL - HARD SECRET, Cologne, Germany

'MALGA GURLBARL - HARD SECRET'
, at Seipple Gallery, Cologne Germany for  K1 #5

"Between 1800s and 1970s, First Nation workers in Australia were enslaved. Denied wages that were stolen by corrupt officials and employers, generations of First Nations in Australia were locked into a cycle of poverty that still exists today.

Badimaya/Yamatji painter, Julie Dowling, has compiled an exhibition on the theme of Slavery in Australia for First Nation people both in these past centuries and in current Australian society. From diving for pearls to back breaking farm labour, from minding children of their colonial masters to present day work for government benefits, Dowling forces Australians to face racist discourses that First Nation people were/are lazy and a drain on society. An amnesia exists whereby Australian agriculture and other primary industries were founded on the slavery of its first peoples. The works in Dowling’s exhibition speak of these atrocities and to show how beautifully resilient her people are despite this."

-  Carol Dowling

in cooperation with:
PETO MADEW KULTURSTIFTUNG
www.pmkstiftung.de
www.k1-galerien.de