Analysis Of Unwritten # 9 By Vernon Ah Kee

Contemporary artist, Ah Kee, has created a work, “Unwritten #9”, references past racial murders and the way they resonate in the present context and explore Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture in the contemporary society. Ah Kee created this series of artworks in response to the apparent police cover up of the death of a young man in their custody and protection of their own lead to accusations of racism, riots by the Islanders and their further oppression by the police. The faces are also non-specific and have no identity, this refers to the devastating history of racism and violence against indigenous peoples in Australia. This symbolism also suggests the often unspoken motivations for actions and interactions between Australians

THE POLICE criticism toward residents of a small inner-city Sydney suburb of Waterloo must signal the end of society and media depictions that has created an inability to deem the residents’ constant claim of police harassment and violence. It is time we should accept the grim fact that many existing attitudes towards the most disadvantaged people, Indigenous Australians, are part of this mayhem-like problem.

Mulrunji lived in a community highly populated of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders, this community also had a high amount of policing officers to control the area. Having such a large amount of visible policing officers in such a community is a means of social control, and another example of a factor that leads to such a large amount of Indigenous Australians in our criminal justice system. This overrepresentation may be interpreted to Indigenous Australians as a threatening move or an act of intimidation, which may result in an escalation of violence or unnecessary police action, as seen with Mulrunji’s case. This is very apparent in Mulrunji’s case, as he was making his way home seemingly not bothering anyone until the officers intercepted.

The sporadic and numerous deaths of Aboriginal Australians whilst in custody, has been an issue of social and moral concern for both the Australian legal system and Australian communities. This predicament has been faced by the Australian legal system for decades until its summit in the late 1980s, were the death of an Aboriginal whilst incarceration was being reported every 11 days. The legal system had to instantaneously make a move that would remedy this issue before the situation got out of hand. Per contra, if it were not for both the legal, non-legal actions and responses, then this issue of Aboriginal Australians constantly dying whilst incarcerated would not have been brought to the attention of the wider Australian communities, nor

In Chapter 3, David Platt talks about a specific seminary graduation requirement that would sound almost impossible to many students of the Word ,here in the United States. He says that before a student can graduate from an Indonesian seminary, the student must “ plant a church, with at least thirty new, baptized believers, in a Muslim community.” This book was written about six years ago when ISIS was barely an organization heard of. Nowadays, being an Indonesian seminary graduate could cost them their life. This is where one experiences life to the fullest meaning of “ beginning at the end of ourselves.”

The case of Jacky Whyman 1875 is a much a case about a society and its tolerance of crime as it is about a society which sees Aboriginals as an animal and a species unto their own of which the laws at times appear barely relevant. The case throws up interesting concepts of Aboriginals place amongst a white society with laws and notions of understanding of a white yet ignorance of how a crime against a black is not the same.

Since the beginning of white colonisation in the late 1700s, Indigenous Australians have been systematically and deliberately discriminated against by European settlers. In his 1986 play ‘No sugar’, renowned Indigenous Australian playwright Jack Davis explores with striking depth and honesty the extensive oppression and violence that enslaved indigenous Australians for centuries under the control of dominant white Australians. Through the Millimurra- Munday family, Davis not only examines the consequences of marginalisation and the enforcement of racist government policies, and how they impact on already deprecated communities, but he also emphasises that it is only through endurance and the strength of family, that individuals can survive

When studying human rights for indigenous Australians now it is vital to also consider this issue in an historical context. The profound injustices since white settlement have left deep scars which are ever present today.

Raymond Carver’s hypo short story So Much Water So Close to Home was published in 2003 set within the late American 1970’s, during the time when there was mass hysteria of serial killings. Carver’s plot used the hysteria of the 1970’s to set up the theme of serial killings within America. Juxtaposingly, Ray Lawrence adapted Carver’s short story in [2006] and [transformed] it into the hyper Australian gothic film Jindabyne. Lawrence adaption of the hypotext focuses on the theme of Aboriginal treatment and the beliefs of the aboriginal treatment. The benefits of adaptation studies lies within their ability to highlight changing societal ideas, attitudes and values.

The point of this paper is to examine the issues surrounding the question ‘Are White skinned Aboriginal people really Aboriginal?” The point this paper is trying to prove is that an individual’s racial and cultural identity and history does not relate to their skin colour.

Australia is often presented as a heroic and extraordinary tale of triumph that changed this nation, but many refuse or are ignorant of the horrific slaughter and massacres of the Aboriginal people. This exhibition depicts the bloody and gruesome side of Australian History that many Australians are unaware of. The start of European settlement during 1788 to the start of the Australian nation being born in 1901, led a trail of massacres, inhumane treatment, enslavement and racism started by the first settlers and passed onto generations of white Australians. The First Settlers refused to understand the Aboriginal way of life as they were believed to be racially inferior and unfit to adapt towards the European lifestyle led to the Europeans

In 2001, Professor Chris Cunneen from the Criminology Department in the University of New South Wales authored a book entitled “Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police” which mainly focused on the relationship between the Aboriginal people and the police. In chapter five of the book, which will be evaluated, he analyses the use of terror such as physical assault, ill treatment and over- policing of the Aboriginal people not just in public places but when in custody as well. It showed the ‘violence of neglect’ (Chris Cunneen 2001, p.106) and the failure to provide proper justice and a certain level of care to the Aboriginal People whether in custody or not (Chris Cunneen, 2001).In 1987, due to the over representation of Aboriginal peoples death in custody, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Death in Custody (RCIADIC) was established to investigate into it(Larissa Behrendt,2013,p.7). There were some recommendations brought forward to make improvement to policing methods and the criminal justice system. However, there seems to be a continuing reality of injustice even in 2001 with high incarceration numbers in custody. “The law should be a shield for the weak and the powerless, not a club for the powerful “(Governor Roy Barnes, 2004 Equal Justice

Authority, grief and guilt are all contextual themes in both ‘The Stone Boy’ by Gina Berriault and episode six ‘Pretty Boy Blue’ of the Australian television programme, ‘Redfern Now’. ‘The Stone Boy’ is a short story about a young boy named ‘Arnold’ accidentally shooting dead his older brother ‘Eugene’ otherwise known as ‘Eugie’ as they are on their way to pick peas. Episode six ‘Pretty Boy Blue’ of ‘Redfern Now’ is about Aboriginal police officer ‘Aaron Davis’ who under certain circumstances allows a young Aboriginal delinquent ‘Lenny’ to die under police custody. The themes; authority, grief and guilt will be explored from both materials and comparisons and contrasts will be made between them. The theme of guilt can be noticed in both;

It is a commonly known issue in Australia that as a minority group, the people of Indigenous Australian ethnicity have always been treated, or at least perceived, differently to those of non-Indigenous disposition. This can be applied to different contexts such as social, economic, education, or in relation to this essay – legal contexts. Generally, Indigenous Australians face issues such as less opportunity for formal education, less access to sufficient income, more health issues, and higher rates of imprisonment (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service

The notion of the contemporary indigenous identity and the impact of these notions are both explored in texts that have been studied. Ivan Sen’s 2002 film ‘Beneath Clouds’ focuses on the stereotypical behaviours of Indigenous Australians highlighting Lina and Vaughn’s journey. This also signifies the status and place of the Australian identity today. Through the use of visual techniques and stereotypes the ideas that the Indigenous are uneducated, involved in crime and the stereotypical portrayal of white people are all explored. Similarly the notion of urban and rural life is represented in Kennith Slessor’s ‘William Street’ and ‘Country Towns’.