mONa fOma

Kartanya and Vernon activate the space outside parliament with language and sound, palawa kani and calls of protest. The project celebrates the first palawa resistance fighters, who walked along Elizabeth Street to parliament at the end of the Black War, honouring a ‘treaty’ resulting in removal from their own land and displacement to Flinders Island. These same resistance fighters are honoured by the annual Change the Date march on 26 January, which will happen online this year, and coincide with the launch of this work at Mona Foma.

Kartanya writes:

warr is a term used to call attention to the importance of what you’re saying. If you have ever attended a community protest or rally you would have heard this sound and would know it is unlike any other.

Since invasion, we as Tasmanian Aboriginal people have fought to continue and reclaim what is rightfully ours. We still have our language, we still have our culture, and we continue our bloodlines and songlines, and will for generations to come. Reclaiming and continuing occupation of our lands has been difficult, but we have done so in our own way. Some of our land has been given back to us by the government but spaces such as parliament lawns have not; we have reclaimed it anyway. It is and has been one of our places of protest, a place to express ourselves and to fight for our human rights and social justice; we saw this during the Black War when our old people marched down Elizabeth Street to show their strength in the face of removal. Now we march alongside their footsteps each year to protest Invasion Day. We have survived, we have reclaimed, and we will continue to do so.