The Year 11 Literature class of 2024 travelled to the city for the Ian Potter Gallery of Australian Art. The expedition began with a model contraption made of glass designed to catch eels. The eel trap depicted the indigenous Australian way of life: eels that were too large would not be trapped, and those that were too small would swim right through, symbolising the ethos of catching only what is necessary and their respect for the environment.
Afterwards, we immersed ourselves in paintings of Australia from a colonist’s perspective. This deepened our understanding of the knowledge we had previously acquired through poetry, revealing what was captured within the artwork, including the environmental context. The paintings succeeded in portraying Indigenous Australians as integral to the landscape and natural environment. This subtly conveyed the colonial intention behind the paintings, offering a new perspective and understanding of Indigenous Australians during the 1800s.
Following these artworks, we explored Indigenous paintings, which featured many dot paintings in “earthy” colours and depicted from a birds-eye-view perspective rather than the generalized first-person viewpoint seen in English paintings. One painting in particular was collaboratively created by various Indigenous Australians spanning different ages, including those from the Stolen Generations to younger individuals in their twenties. This sparked a dialogue about the cultural significance embedded within the painting and highlighted how certain cultural elements have been lost over generations.
Ethan C
Year 11 Student
