Little Bourke Street

Musical Artist

Papaphilia

Papaphilia is the experimental electronic project of queer sound and visual artist Fjorn Bastos, who continually draws the listener’s attention back to intangible ancestral experiences that guide embodied form and knowledge – rhythm, voice and emotion.

Visual Artist

Kaff-eine

Kaff-eine paints public artworks and realist portraiture, which combine creativity with a strong social conscience, inviting audiences to engage with diverse societal and political issues.

The Lore and the Law

Two powerful beasts are caught in a protracted duel: Australia’s iconic kangaroo; and the unicorn, a symbol of the United Kingdom and British Monarch, and the Supreme Court of Victoria. The battle? The clash of two established legal systems in Australia, and the slow, non- linear process towards reconciliation.

Australia’s First Nations People had a complex system of traditional lore centuries before the establishment of British law in Australia. Traditional lore determined how people interacted with the land, kinship and community. It was upheld by Elders, and taught to children through customs, ceremonies and songs.

Despite this, in 1788 England claimed possession and declared Australia ‘terra nullius’- not inhabited by peoples with settled law or customs – imposing British law on First Nations Australians against their will. First Nations Australians were unable to defend charges against themselves, or bring charges against colonisers in courts. Unable to vote, they had no input into the development of the law. The results were devastating.

First Nations Australians fought the violent Colonial takeover of their land and lives, facing punitive Colonial expeditions, martial law and massacres. The bloody Frontier Wars were followed by Colonial policies aimed at isolating and segregating First Nations families, and erasing traditional lore and culture.

Despite Colonial oppression, traditional lore was and still is observed by First Nations Australians across the country. Decades of First Nations organising, protest and activism succeeded in creating fundamental changes in the Colonial legal system, and expanding legal avenues of redress for the decades of harm suffered under Colonial law.

Reconciliation, and the application of dual legal systems, is still fraught and incomplete. The push for greater recognition of First Nations Australians’ lore and rights continues. Australian law continues to mature and develop in response. The kangaroo and the unicorn haven’t finished yet.