omission

omission explores Australia's tragic colonial history, in particular the overt culture and practice of division, exclusion and omission of Indigenous peoples, their cultures, their landscapes and the creatures that occupy them. Glenn Iseger-Pilkington has curated seven Indigenous artists interrogating these omissions. They are, Bindi Cole, Michael Cook, Fiona Foley, Sandra Hill, Danie Mellor, Reko Rennie and Yhonnie Scarce. They give voice to those who did not have that opportunity while simultaneously paying homage to their Indigenous ancestors. They make a loud and unapologetic declaration that such injustices and atrocities shall not go unwritten, unmade or unremembered.

Bindi Cole's installation Goodbye Pain, explores forgiveness and is conceptually grounded in personal memory and experience. Michael Cook's work interrogates Australian history through the rendering of scenes that sit equally in the realm of reality and the fictional. His striking imagery challenges our national history whilst exploring the stereotypes of Indigenous people which have come into being through an endless production line of kitsch Aboriginalia. Fiona Foley's evocative and challenging series, The Oyster Fisherman, tells of a harrowing day for one Indigenous woman. As a member of the stolen generation, Sandra Hill’s work tells a painful history, shared by many Indigenous Australian peoples while asserting cultural strength and personal determination whilst Reko Rennie’s work interrogates the church’s involvement in the forcible removal of indigenous children. Danie Mellor's engages with historical imagery to explore connection and custodianship of place beyond that of the western notion of ownership and Yhonnie Scarce’s glassworks pay homage to the many Indigenous peoples massacred in the establishment of the Australian colonies.