Remembering Those Who Have Gone Before

In this chapter, Badtjala artist and scholar, Fiona Foley, describes her effort to counter public silences concerning the violent occupation and orchestrated brutality that occurred on Queensland's colonial frontier through a committed public and contemporary art practice that started during her undergraduate studies in the 1980s. Foley argues that public art is a way of putting in plain sight a history that has been shrouded in silence and complicity since colonisation of Aboriginal Country in Queensland, Australia began. This chapter discusses key commemorative works from her practice to date including Annihilation of the Blacks (1986), Stud Gins (2003), Witnessing to Silence (2004) and Dispersed (2008). It also describes Foley’s strong wish to see a public memorial commemorating the 1851 massacre of Badtjala people on K’gari (Fraser Island) in her lifetime.