Since moving to Edinburgh, I have been concerned about the sparsity of education and knowledge on the history of British colonisation, particularly within the British empire itself. Meanwhile in Australia, the history of colonial rule continually affects the nation; the lasting cruelty of James Cook’s arrival in 1770 continues to disrupt Indigenous life to this day. The role that art plays in the country’s postcolonial discourse presents an essential view on First Nation cultures and values; and crucially captures Indigenous histories long forgotten and purposefully erased.
Daniel Boyd, a Kudjala, Ghungalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung and Yuggera man with ni-Vanuatu heritage, burst onto the Australian art scene in 2005. His heightened sensitivity to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history – which was never taught to him at school – became the foundation of his early work and his particular interest in the objects that were collected or sent to England following Cook’s arrival.
One such work is We Call Them Pirates Out Here (2006), wherein Boyd appropriates the famous historical painting by Emanuel Phillips Fox – titled Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, 1770 – which captures the birth of a colonised Australia.
Boyd’s work reshapes dominant Eurocentric and colonial narratives of Australia’s history by depicting Cook as a marauding pirate who, with his Union Jack and skull flag, takes possession of the land. Cook is no longer depicted as the civilised and heroic explorer Australians read about in our history books. Instead, Boyd’s Cook is the anti-hero of a narrative in which his landing is re-examined as a moment of invasion and pillage against First Nations people and original habitants of the land.
The satirical characterisation of Cook draws the viewer into the work without intimidation and creates an unusually comfortable and humorous space to understand an Aboriginal perspective of history. The work acts as a means for Indigenous and non-Indigenous viewers to understand themselves and others better, to encourage those viewers to be empathetic, and to catalyse so-called Australia forward into a future of reimagining and change.
Boyd’s work is magnificently anti-establishment at heart as he asks questions about what has been omitted from history. He positions his painting inside a white border, where he plays with old-fashioned handwriting to parallel the design of a postcard. Boyd says that he formatted the work this way because, “later on down the line I would like to send this to England as a postcard to show them the consequences that have come from the things that the empire had done.”
The genius of Daniel Boyd is that – with exceptional technical skill and vigour – he is successful in questioning and reshaping the dominant and enduring Eurocentric narratives of history that purposefully erase Indigenous perspectives and experiences. If we are committed to understanding how colonisation endures, within both settler colonies and the British empire itself, then Boyd’s narrative is crucial.
“australia” by Kenny Teo (zoompict) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.