Panel Talk: BLAK HISTORY & BLAK FUTURES
Description
What can we learn from the generations who came before us, and what does that history mean for the future?
Two generations of Gumbaynggirr people, Professor Gary Foley and Aretha Brown come together in conversation about Aboriginal history, activism and the ongoing struggle for self-determination.
Drawing on Prof. Foley's decades of political activism and community organising, alongside Aretha's contemporary practice as an artist and activist, the conversation will explore the movements, people and ideas that have shaped Blak political history, and how those histories continue to influence a new generation.
Speakers
Professor Gary Foley
Gary Foley is a Gumbaynggirr academic, activist, historian and educator, and Director of the Aboriginal History Archive at Victoria University. Foley has been involved in major Aboriginal political movements since the 1970s, including the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Springbok tour demonstrations and the establishment of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations including the Aboriginal Legal Service, Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and National Black Theatre.
Aretha Brown
Aretha Brown is a Gumbaynggirr artist, muralist and screenwriter whose multidisciplinary practice centres Blak truth-telling, cultural resilience and intergenerational knowledge transfer. Through painting, public art, installation and storytelling, Brown creates works that challenge colonial narratives while celebrating First Nations survival, joy and futurity.
BORN ROMANTIC
'The only thing harder than being born Aboriginal, gay, and a woman… is being born a romantic.’
- Aretha Brown
In the age of the internet, I have chosen a post-cringe perspective on the meaning of love, dating and romance; leaning into the vulnerable, awkward and the uncomfortable.
Rejecting the assumption that Aboriginal art must be purely educational and political, this show delivers a dissection of my heart, a deeply personal insight into the experience of being a young, queer, Blak girl. It’s sexy, stupid, tender, awkward, and a little bit perverted.
This show is my love letter to being embarrassingly human.
Born Romantic is supported by Abbotsford Convent.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity