Counter-monuments Symposium: Session One

Counter-monuments: Indigenous settler relations in Australian contemporary art and memorial practices | Session One: Wednesday 17 March 2021 Chair: Associate Professor Sana Nakata, co-founder of the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration, University of Melbourne IN THIS SESSION: Counter-monuments: An introduction by Genevieve Grieves and Dr Amy Spiers MISSING or DEAD: reinstating the hidden figures of history by Dr Julie Gough Indigenous perspectives on Captain Cook: this full agency, this decolonised spirit by Paola Balla and Dr Clare Land, with Kate Golding

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM: This three-day symposium offers unique insights into the process of creating artworks in response to difficult and violent colonial histories: from failed and rejected artwork proposals, and tense negotiations and compromises with commissioners, to the consideration of Indigenous approaches to memorialisation, artists, curators, academics and activists consider the different roles played by public memorials, and the ways in which public art serves to both educate and confront uninformed settler publics whilst producing spaces of remembrance and healing for Indigenous people. Genevieve Grieves and Dr Amy Spiers have developed this program in partnership with the Indigenous Settler Relations Collaboration (ISRC), University of Melbourne, Contemporary Art and Social Transformation (CAST), RMIT, and with assistance from the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. ACCA is pleased to host this symposium as part of the 2020-22 research, publication and exhibition project Who’s Afraid of Public Space?