(dis)Regarding the Savages: a short history of published images of Tasmanian Aborigines
Images of colonial Australia by early artists such as Joseph Lycett are popular withhistorians as a means of acknowledging Indigenous culture and relationships with land.While some critical discussion may occur about the naivety of the artists understandingof cultural complexity and diversity, these...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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LaTrobe University
2018
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| Online Access: | https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/978141/Graphic-Encounters-Conference-Program-2018.pdf http://ecite.utas.edu.au/145890 |
| Summary: | Images of colonial Australia by early artists such as Joseph Lycett are popular withhistorians as a means of acknowledging Indigenous culture and relationships with land.While some critical discussion may occur about the naivety of the artists understandingof cultural complexity and diversity, these images are seldom adequately considered interms of the foundational role they played in the disempowerment and dispossession ofthe First Nations that they depicted. Lycetts images of Van Diemens Land in his Views ofAustralia (1825) may appear as an innocuous record of colonial progress and aspirationin the island colony, but betray a more sinister outlook for the Palawa people whose futurethey accurately forecast. Greg Lehman will outline some of his recent research on therepresentation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people by 19th century exploration and colonialartists to reveal a dramatic shift in the visual archive; from celebration of noble savageryby the engravers of Paris, to the proposition of terra nullius that emerged from London. |
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