Project
Alana Hunt in Kununurra
Colonial dreams of development begin to materialise through the mundane language of bureaucracy — words that appear clean on paper but wreak havoc in the world. Since 1972, over 3,300 applications to Section 18 of the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act have been processed, seeking legal permission to “destroy, damage or alter an Aboriginal site.” Only three have been declined. Under the guise of protection this legislation provides a pathway for destruction.
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Alana Hunt, A very clear picture, 2020-2023, installation view, Elizabeth Durack, Grant Range I, c1935-c1958, felt tip marker and wash, The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Purchased 1958. The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2023. Photo by Dan McCabe (@artdoc_au). -
Alana Hunt, A very clear picture, 2021, pen on three pieces of scrap A4 paper. -
Alana Hunt, A very clear picture, 2020-2023, installation view. The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2023. Photo by Dan McCabe (@artdoc_au).
This is the legislation that made the desecration of Juukan Gorge legal. But what took place there is not unusual. Through an examination of language this project probes the nexus between government, industry and settler daily life. Central to this suite of works is a video that chronicles the “purpose” summaries of 967 Section 18 applications processed between 2010-20 and narrated in full and without pause by Sam Walsh AO, former CEO of Rio Tinto. While Sam read, Alana wrote, trying to capture a word or phrase from every summary he narrated. These hastily scribbled notes forge A very clear picture of colonisation today.
Sourced via processes of Freedom of Information, In Plain Sight presents every word — arranged in alphabetical order — from a completed Section 18 application form that sought to “build a residence and access to residence.” A proposal for screening and distribution documents a failed attempt to circulate the video Nine Hundred and Sixty Seven on television screens in regional airports across Western Australia.
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Alana Hunt, In plain sight (detail), 2023, text debossed by hand on 67 pieces of A4 paper, pins. The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2023. Photo by Dan McCabe (@artdoc_au). -
In plain sight, 2023, single channel video showing text debossed by hand on 67 pieces of A4 paper,3 mins 56 sec.
Presented alongside two works from the State Art Collection by Elizabeth Durack, whose family was among the first to colonise the East Kimberley and whose images depict Miriwoong Country, they demonstrate the ongoing ways in which non-Indigenous Australians continue to interrupt this continent with the forces of colonisation, through pictorial and legal exercises in ownership. Taken together, this collection of works scratches at the obscure and obscured ways in which colonisation takes place.
This work — an examination of non-Indigenous culture in Australia today — has taken shape with the guidance of the Kimberley Land Council and their legal team over the course of the Rural Utopias project.
The video Nine Hundred and Sixty Seven was screened with the support of the Kimberley Land Council on Miriwoong Country at the Kununurra Picture Gardens alongside a performative response by Miriwoong Dancers/Waringarri Art Centre led by Chris Griffiths, and on Yawuru Country at Goolarri Media featuring Neil McKenzie sharing stories and leading a performance, and the local youth dance group Burrb Waggaraju Nurlu led by Tara Gower.
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Photo by Sarah Landro, Camera Story. -
Kimberley Culture and Heritage Showcase, 30 June 2022, Goolarri Media, Broome. Courtesy Kimberley Land Council. Photo by Goolarri Media.