The ArtswipeSpot the Difference (from the Sorry series) 2008
Mobile phone propaganda
Mobile phone propaganda
The Artwipe made a little pilgrimage to church this morning. I rarely go in, I just check out the signage outside as I always enjoy a Christian pun first thing in the morning. My local church had a sign announcing, "It's Good to Say Sorry" followed by a bible verse. As forgiveness is a Christian past-time, it's unsurprising that Rudd's Sorry Day has been turned into a kind of churchey truism, resplendent with as much meaning as a bumper sticker that might read "Quakers Say NO to ALL WAR". Yes, such a bumper sticker exists. See image below.
So anyway. Today I thought I would actually go inside the church and say my own sorry to God, Mankind, Womankind, Indigenouskind.... Even "In-kind". Because sometimes people give me free shit! As I entered the church, the Reverend Man greeted me, we sat down and he said, "What ails you child?"
The Artswipe said:
What concerns me, Father, is how Christianity has been inextricably linked to the injustices experienced by Aboriginals in this country. Now that the Australian Government says Sorry, the Church de-politicises the Sorry gesture for its own trite and ye-olde-worlde marketing machine. Is this not a colonialist mentality of theft: to drain the real meaning of the apology to the Stolen Generation and recast it within a Judeo-Christian ideology where forgiveness is never Black as it's always whiter than White and washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
The ArtswipeFrom The Seatbelt Series, 2007 and ongoing
Mobile phone moment
3 comments:
"The influence of Chief Protector Bleakley
J W Bleakley, Chief Protector and Director of Native Affairs from 1913 to 1942,
exercised a major influence over Queensland policy and the practices of officials and the
missions. He believed firmly in the segregation of Indigenous people from non-
Indigenous people.
It is only by complete separation of the two races that we can save him (‘the Aborigine’) from
hopeless contamination and eventual extinction, as well as safeguard the purity of our own blood
(Chief Protector Report 1919 page 7 quoted by Long 1970 on page 97).
Bleakley was a strong supporter of the missions.
Few realise the value of work done by missions. Not only do they protect the child races from the
unscrupulous white, but they help to preserve the purity of the white race from the grave social
dangers that always threaten where there is a degraded race living in loose condition at its back
door (Bleakley 1961 on page 124)."
From the Bringing Them Home Report
Dear Artswipe,
Such a great post.
SJ xx
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