Monika BehrensLeave Britney Alone! 2007
Oil on board
Courtesy the artist
Photo: Tom Polo
Oil on board
Courtesy the artist
Photo: Tom Polo
The Artswipe was stuck in traffic this morning listening to Triple J's mind-numbing morning radio program. One day I'll iPod the car, I promise. The news presenter at 7am started with the story on everyone's lips: Sorry Day, which happens finally Wednesday 13th February. If you've been living under Ayers Rock, on another planet, or down Howard's End, then you might need to be reminded that it is the day when the Australian Government finally lead the way in saying sorry for the trauma and injustices imposed on our indigenous peoples since the dawn of whiteness in this land girt by sea. Of particular emphasis in the Sorry rhetoric is making amends to the Stolen Generations.
Soda_JerkNothing Compares 2 U, 2007
Photo collage
Courtesy the artists
So it's all over the news and this morning the poor Triple J newsreader kept tripping over his words and uttered a particularly tricky sentence including the words 'stolen' and 'sorry'. As alliteration must not be a strong suit, he collapsed both words so they came out as 'stoli'. How racist to bring up alcohol in this context, I thought indignantly! After a few stunned moments, I realise anyone can get a little tongue tied. And as it's very early in the morning and as reading the news is probably one of the most challenging jobs in the food chain, I forgive him, I say Sorry.
Soda_JerkTabloid Trash Attack (50ft Brit vs Kevzilla) 2006
Photo collage, commissioned by Runway Magazine
Courtesy the artists
But as political correctness is not one of The Artswipe's stronger points, I started thinking about how this historic day should be the start of universal sorryness. Now craving a Stoli and Coke at 7:10am-ish and thinking about Stolen Generations, I began to realise we all have to say sorry to so many people. My indigenous brothers and sisters, I'm sorry. To everyone I've wronged, I'm sorry. One person I've wronged recently is Britney Spears. To Britney, I'm sorry. Like all child stars whose transition into adulthood is wracked with booze, pills, paparrazi, Vegas weddings, abandoned kids, mental illness, Britney is a babywoman whose childhood was stolen out from under her. "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman", as her song goes. We have all wronged Britney so join me some time soon when I lobby Parliaments of the World for a Sorry Britney Day.
3 comments:
now i know who you are
i so wish kevin rudd wasn't so damn bad at giving speeches (recalling after election victory back in late november it was during his acceptance speech we all decided to head down to the pub as he was putting a dampener on it all)
the words he said this historical morning were very eloquent and well considered and although i haven't scrutinized a transcript of it yet listening to rudd deliver it was like listening to a voice recording on phone banking, or my neighbour tell me about how he pruned his plum tree and found a birds nest back in 1996 and what a cold winter it was.
kevin get a bit of omph and emotion in there will ya for god bloody sake
It's about time both SORYY's were said - bravo Sod...I mean Arty. SJ xx (always sorry)
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