Truth behind lies

Above painting: Men in mourning — Maree Clarke

Aboriginal history was glossed over when I was at school, and even today, the depth of the injustice is often omitted.

Blood on the wattle — Yvonne Scarce. This was about a massacre that occurred in 1849 when Aboriginal people were wrongly accused after three sheep disappeared from a station in South Australia. It was chilling standing next to this coffin.

The devastating result of peoples forced off their land, dragged on to reserves, murdered, and children removed from families was evident in the art work displayed in one section of Melbourne’s Federation Square National Gallery of Victoria.

Chase (foreground) and Imperial leather (background) — Julie Gough representation of the fear Aboriginal people have after Captain Cook’s arrival.