Artefact 4 Understanding the aboriginal perspective

This piece demonstrates the new understandings that I gained in my

Aboriginal history unit an the appreciation I have for the culture (1.4)

Connections
Tamsin Oski

As I stepped through the brush and the gardens, the strong

connection that I felt with this beauty was indescribable. The
towering gum trees, surrounded by wattle and grasses, the
magnificent blue of the sky contrasting against the green and brown
of our native flora was a balm to my spirit. The Melbourne Botanical
gardens encapsulate the beauty of our natural Australian lands.
As I explored the vast shrubbery, I began thinking about the
traditional owners of this land and the connection which they must
have felt. Through spending countless hours reading, researching
and attending classes I felt the urge to explore this connection, that
is probably difficult to completely comprehend to someone like me
of non-indigenous ascent.
The separation of the indigenous people from their land was where I
began to focus my efforts. I wanted to explore their unique
connection and try to appreciate why being removed from their land
is so difficult for indigenous peoples.
History has been unkind.
Tainted with blood from the ongoing battle for land in the 1800s, 1
through to the establishment of missions and reserves, 2 leading to
the removal of children and the destruction of families in the 1900s 3
provides a nutshell perspective of the indigenous struggle in
Australia.
However, there will always be a connection despite the history,
despite legal documentation, despite all that stands in their way.
The spirituality and significance of the land helps provide identity to
the indigenous people; it is part of who they are.
1 HIST106 Lecture Week 3: The Myth of Peaceful Settlement. Nell Musgrove
2 HIST106 Lecture Week 4: Missions and Reserves. Nell Musgrove
3 HIST106 Lecture Week 6: Child Removal. Naomi Wolfe

The aboriginal flag encapsulates my point exactly.

The deep red earth, the hot golden sun and the indigenous people
who tread upon the land.
There other elements of my art work which try to explain the
connection with the land and contrast with their ongoing struggles.
The piece of barbed wire portrays the divide that the indigenous
people had from their land, when it was taken from them at the
time of settlement.4 This is also divides my piece highlighting the
negative aspects of the land struggle, splattered with red and
encapsulates the atrocities of those years.
The clay reaching from the flag to the flower, tries to symbolize the
red soil of the earth. It typifies what land is to the indigenous
people as well as an indigenous man himself. The link from the red
soil of the flag to the flower shows the natural use of the earth but
by circling the man it encompasses how man is entwined into the
relationship and one cannot survive without the other.
Finally, the colours and the words try to display in simple text what
I have come to learn about the connection of man to land. They
signify the joy, the struggle and the hope for future generations.
My piece Connections tries to make sense of the indigenous
connection to land as well as highlighting the struggles they have
experienced over the past 200 and more years. 5 It attempts to
demonstrate what the aboriginal people believe the land is for, what
it means to them and spiritual connection that bonds not only
families, but also communities as a whole which continue despite
the challenges which stand in their way.

4 HIST106 Lecture Week 3: The Myth of Peaceful Settlement. Nell Musgrove

5 HIST106 Lecture Week 1: Narrative and Counter-Narrative. Nell Musgrove