A group of artists are honouring every Indigenous Australian who has died in custody

For Cedric Barco, drawing hundreds of shrouds to show the death of his Aboriginal brothers and sisters in custody evoked raw emotions.

“They may be physically separated from us, but they are still remembered and cared for,” Ngaringeri’s artist told SBS News.

Cedric’s uncle died in detention in Sydney in the 1970s, and his brother committed suicide in prison.

“”[The artwork] It really brought me raw emotions. It’s an emotion I felt I’ve dealt with, but I’m still dealing with it because I’m the only one left in my family. “

The 500 concrete shroud paintings form part of an installation called a contest space by a group of South Australian artists. It aims to draw attention to the number of indigenous peoples who died during detention because the Royal Commission died during detention of indigenous peoples in 1991.

At least 437 indigenous people have been detained since the Royal Commission. No convictions have been recorded.

Cedric says that the symbolism and images depicted on the shroud represent pain, fear, anxiety, and a strong connection to culture.

“Some of us feel like we were born into it. It’s a generational trauma that has been passed down to us,” he said.

“It gives you depression, gives you bad mental health problems, and makes you feel undesired by the wider community.”

In 2020 alone, seven indigenous people died in custody. Four in a Western Australian prison, two in a Victorian prison, and one in a Brisbane observation post.

Cedric said each death ignited the pain of those who came before.

“When one member of our community dies, we all mourn them, so we always spend the morning,” he said.

“We are always losing community members.”

In the process of creating the work, Cedric said he, along with change media collaborators and Ngarrindjeri artist Clydrigney, delved into the problems and processes that could kill someone while in custody.

“Racism, poverty, family loss, the trauma of being taken home, drug and alcoholism, and how they feel lonely and important to the wider community.”

Connecting to his indigenous heritage through country and art gives Cedric the weight of the past and the power to deal with the racism he is still experiencing on a regular basis.

“I don’t seem to be a problem in a wider society and I’m struggling with it too. When people don’t know me, they may see me as this big, huge and scary person,” he says. It was.

“In Ngaringeri culture, Miui [inner spiritual connection to the land] It gives us strength, connects us to the country, and gives us identities that connect us to waterways and totems, and to each other.

“I have strongly believed that culture helps you deal with it.”

“White-painted colonization”

Carl Kardell, co-founder of Change Media, grew up in Germany and felt the importance of acknowledging past mistakes and not repeating them.

He said the big difference between how the Germans commemorate the Holocaust and how the Australians talk about what he said as the genocide of indigenous peoples in Australia is the inspiration for the artwork.

“The exterior of the shroud was the idea that the colonized concrete gray whitewash was talking about killing and concealing responsibilities associated with death,” he said.

His artistic partner, Jen Lions Reed, describes the process of making a shroud as an emotional journey in which she first makes 500 face replicas and then soaks in concrete to “sniff” her identity. Did.

“It was so painful that it was a pretty tricky job to make,” she said.

But that’s the subject the artist is facing, hoping that the entire audience will also be involved.

“How can I reach an agreement as a non-indigenous people? [with this]?? What do I need to do and how do I participate in the conversation? “

The contest space has recently been exhibited at Signal Point Gallery in Goolwa, South Australia. The artist is currently looking for a new home for his work.