Keep The Fire Burning!

Acknowledgement of Country

The National Gallery respectfully acknowledges we are on the Country of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples of the Kamberri/Canberra region. We recognise their continuing connection to Country and culture, and we pay our respect to their Elders, leaders and artists, past and present. We respectfully acknowledge all Traditional Custodians throughout Australia.

Cultural warning

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this resource may contain images and names of artists who have passed away.

About this resource

The NAIDOC theme for 2024 calls for us to Keep The Fire Burning! Blak, Loud, and Proud. In this resource, look at three First Nations artists who have continued a legacy of protest and activism in their diverse practices. You’ll also get the opportunity to reflect, research, and create your own works of art!

Art Through Culture

The Keep The Fire Burning! learning resource is informed by the National Gallery's Art Through Culture Principles. Art Through Culture is a set of principles used by the First Nations and broader Learning and Digital team to ensure all delivery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is always respectful. To learn more about the Art Through Culture principles, head down to the Related section at the end of this page.

Share your creations

We hope you enjoy this learning resource. We would love to see and share your creations. If you would like to share your work on our social media pages, please send us images, along with your school name, year level and the Country you are on groupbookings@nga.gov.au

This resource was developed by First Nations Lead Artist Educator Maggie-Jean Douglas, Kabi-Kabi people and First Nations Learning Facilitator Noah Watson, Butchulla & Kuku-Yalanji peoples

Destiny Deacon, G’ua G’ua/Erub/Mer peoples, is a Torres Strait Islander artist. Deacon’s practice often centres on themes of reclamation of First Nations culture, particularly works of art that appropriate or misuse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture as decoration and perpetuate racist stereotypes.

Peach Blossom’s Revenge, 1995, reimagines the action heroes Deacon grew up with, and the VHS tape covers they would appear on. The action hero, Peach Blossom, is a First Nations woman and as the imagined film synopsis reads, she is out to settle scores and yearning to find her roots. The character strikes several poses with the American flag and a machine gun, drawing parallels to a Hollywood film scene.

As curator and academic Myles Russell-Cook, Wotjobaluk people, says, by reimagining how Hollywood sees Aboriginal people, Destiny draws attention to the absence of positive Aboriginal representation on television, challenging audiences to question what it feels like to live in a world where the only depictions of yourself you see on television are offensive ones.¹

Reflect

To feel represented and validated it is important for every young person to see themselves in pop culture. Where have you been able to see yourself represented in a way that made you feel celebrated?

Write down some of your pop culture heroes, and how they represent you.

Julie Gough, Trawlwoolway people, lives and works in Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her practice highlights the atrocities that have been committed against the First Nations peoples of Lutruwita, acknowledging their history and refusing to allow these stories to be forgotten.

Human Nature and Material Culture, 1994, is a participatory installation made up of two parts; a wall hanging and bathroom scales. The wall hanging is an antique floral carpet acquired from a tip shop, placed on the wall, level with the viewers eyeline. Positioned on the floor is a set of bathroom scales covered with the same carpet.

Faced with the floor in our face, unsettled by indoor and outdoors merging, overwhelmed by the floral niceties of yesteryear, perhaps the participant-viewer of this work can recognise in their everyday our troubled past, bound together by the despicable treatment of Indigenous Tasmanians.
Julie Gough, Trawlwoolway people

Human Nature and Material Culture invites the audience to participate by weighing themselves on the scales. The audience is given an opportunity to reflect on the weight of understanding Australia’s shared history. This experience not only increases the visibility of these stories but inspires participants to consider their role and personal relationship in our shared past.

The viewer’s weight brings their own unique relationship to bear/make the past and possible relationships/outcomes (from the panel) visible within the vehicle for the narrative: bathroom scales.
Julie Gough, Trawlwoolway people

Reflect

Whose Country are you on right now?

What were local First Nations experiences of colonisation for this region?

For example, were there any missions or reserves? Did any massacres occur? What dispossession of land happened, and who received that land?

In groups, discuss your personal experiences of learning about the local history of colonisation.

The Aboriginal Memorial sits at the heart of the National Gallery of Australia. Curated by Djon Mundine, Bundjalung people, and 44 Ramingining artists, Yolgnu people, The Aboriginal Memorial has an ongoing history of commemorating the First Nations lives lost due to impacts of colonisation within Australia.

The Aboriginal Memorial was created as a protest in response to the Bicentenary celebrations in 1988. Mundine says I was aware lots of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists were boycotting the Bicentenary. I thought that… would not be noticed internationally. Mundine was inspired by the Yolgnu practice of Dupun burials, in which the remains of the deceased are placed in a hollow log coffin. The hollow logs can also represent the deceased person — the designs on the Dupun are the same as the designs painted on the body. The Dupun’s allow the soul of the deceased to return back to Country.

The Aboriginal Memorial is a large war cemetery installation, consisting of 200 Dupun, each representing one year of colonisation in Australia. Honouring loss of life, loss of land, and loss of culture between 1788-1988, the Aboriginal Memorial is a reminder of the 200 years of colonisations and remains as a protest beyond the Bicentenary.

We are charged with keeping the spirit of this work alive. We are committed to keeping this an active memorial space long into the future.
Bruce Johnson McLean, Wierdi/Birri-Gubba peoples

Created by artists belonging to 9 social groups, the individual Dupun’s are arranged according to where the social group lives on Yolgnu Country. The winding path through the centre of the installation represents the Glyde River, linking to First People’s ongoing connection to Country.

Reflect

On 5 separate sticky notes or small pieces of paper, respond to the following prompts with one word.

1. The Aboriginal Memorial makes me feel ____________
2. This is a powerful protest because it is ____________
3. Learning more about Australia’s history was _____________
4. I want to live in an Australia that is more ______________
5. The political or social issue I am most passionate about is ____________

Create

Use your five words from the reflect activity to form a creative writing response or poem. It can take any form you like!

1. DESTINY: the art of Destiny Deacon, Myles Russell-Cook, February 2021. Available at: DESTINY: the art of Destiny Deacon | NGV