place on earth

Linseed, monitor with single channel looped DVD.

Exhibited at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra, for solo show of same title.

The video shows a looped clip from the 1958 film Areyonga, produced by the then Commonwealth Film Unit of Australia. It shows the white teacher at the mission station showing the local, Aboriginal children ‘their place in the world’. Clip used with permission from Film Australia Ltd, now Screen Australia.

WorldCat entry for this film is “At Areyonga aboriginal settlement in the Northern Territory an attempt is made to assimilate tribal natives by teaching them rules of hygiene and other ways of living with other Australians.”