Reviews the book 'Eye Contact' which discusses a photographic exhibition 'Koori Voices' which depicts experiences of the Aboriginal people of the Koori community of Victoria following colonialism.
The role of museums in the intersection of historical and narrative truth and in what it implies about the politics of representation is discussed. The dialogue, The Two Laws exhibition and Bujilaka as a whole are not perfect.
We now routinely understand that long before 1788 terra Australis was made a sacred, spiritual place by the First Australians. We now know that white Australia has a black history, a message which melds two Dreamings by encoding a complex web of themes expressing regret, hope, redemption and salvation. As Steve Hawke (son of Bob) recently remarked, 'Black history and tradition - and a sense of unity with the land - can fill the hole…
