Cultural Precinct
All this creating speaking breathing on Kaurna country demands more than just an acknowledgment of a peoples past present and future, for this place, this space, is abundant with stories and strong families who have always had agency, moving through and resisting what this particular cultural-precinct represents: Tarnanthi – rise, come-forth, spring-up, appear. Right here, in this potent-place, you will find Festival offerings beyond a feast of art, for this cultural-precinct along Adelaide’s North Terrace is no easy place for everyone to navigate…. these limestone walls whisper a conglomerate fragmented journey that has lead us, toward this day, surrounded by precious gifts like these images, these hanging skirts, these glass bush-yams, these baskets, and now, in this moment, I call on you to reflect on the very walls from which they hang...
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these limestone walls frame institutions of power shape the
‘main story’ this colonial ‘free’ State / these North Terrace
statues bronzed famous faces symbols of colonialism
Empire-revered / next door the Parade Ground
original quarry raw materials morph grand buildings abound /
limestone mined from this old Kaurna campsite Red-Kangaroo
stories ripped from the ground / these limestone walls these
limestone walls / consider this Armory that housed a
morgue cells and gallows watch our people hang /
see mounted police perform military functions “pacified” our
warriors on colonial frontiers / these wretched walls this
Armory building hear horses-hooves gallop on cobblestoned
blood / this limestone heritage revered cultural-precinct
our bodies stolen de-
fleshed and preserved / these limestone walls these
limestone walls / consider this place the South Australian
Museum their proudest collection wins the Empire’s great race /
an uncanny replica London’s Natural History Museum but
what is ‘natural’ about their history of this place? / they ‘set up
camp’ on great expeditions to study and collect us
‘experts’ in teams / their cabinets of curiosity their objects and
specimens their racialised hierarchy our human remains /
these limestone walls these limestone walls / the Migration
Museum was the old Protector’s Office the Rations Depot
the Colonial Store / blankets and flour sugar and tea the
removal of children the first Kaurna school / and behind the Art
Gallery the Radford Auditorium the ammunitions-store for
military-police / then a storage-place for Aboriginal
Records where paper-trails trace surveillance and control /
consider the paperwork the archiving process to consign and
classify this resource maintained / consider this fantasy monolith-
archive its stunning all-knowing so easily sustained /
these limestone walls these limestone walls / strive to navigate this
violent place be still and listen there are waterholes here / these
fresh water springs flow a limestone-memory erode and
expose our truth will appear.