BIRRUNGA WIRADYURI
Silent W

2022
acrylic on framed canvas
121 x 91cm

Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) inherently favour tokenism / box ticking over genuine engagement leading to relationship based initiatives driven by, informed and underpinned by a capital investment in supporting the target demographic to articulation the matters truly at hand. Blak deaths in custody. Trails of Blaks by all white juries. Blak Child removals. Stolen Land. Financial exclusion by black-cladding. Cultural criminalisation / apartheid. Racist political policy. Ongoing colonial genocidal hostilities et al. All of which is messy, not super RAP optics friendly, negative ROI and lets face it, burdensome. So box ticking it is, or put another way, wrapping up aspirant waffle to generate optics that encourage acceptance without question of any tangible, veracity, validity and/or valuable outcomes to the target demographic. In this case, closer scrutiny of the boxes beyond the glossy aesthetic reveals they are coffins with gold ticks on the lid of each casket.

The coffins are uniformly presented hiding the diversity of the causal factors contributing to the deaths of the target demographic within as well as the age, gender, standing, story of same. In each individual case the body is wrapped in a shroud of subterfuge, misrepresenting the reality of their lives and of course, of their deaths.