Voice Talk
Kings Cross will get some of its mojo back when Cross Arts Project launches two important events to raise awareness for a Yes Vote for the Voice referendum to be held on October 14.
First up is Voice Talk, hosted by writer Linda Jaivin and featuring Cathy Wilcox and Fiona Katauskas, two of Australia’s most insightful and acerbic political and social commentators.
The discussion is being held as part of Wentworth for the Voice, a group affiliated with Yes 23 with organisational help from the office of Allegra Spender.
Wilcox, who works for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers and is also an award winning children’s book illustrator, felt compelled to discuss the Voice.
“I don’t always feel compelled to take a position on some issues of public debate (and editorial independence is important in my newspaper carting role) but I have long cared about the effects of colonisation on First Nations people,” she explained.
“The challenge has been in wanting to “do right”, while facing, and evaluating harsh criticism from both ends of the No spectrum.”
Katauskas describes herself as an “accidental cartoonist” having originally studied politics at the Australian National University.
Since taking up cartooning in 1997 her work has appeared in the SMH, The Age, The Australian, The Chaser and New Matilda, plus work for Mambo and the Ink Group.
Her cartoons “If You Don’t Know” and the “Right Side of History” are already hits on Facebook.
“Cartoonists are lucky folk indeed, able to take all their experience, beliefs, bile and passion, wrap them up in a metaphor and get inky fingers in the process,” Katauskas said. “We are only getting a chance to do this once.
“While the Voice may have its limitations and its critics, its opening a pathway to giving Indigenous people a better say in their futures (while) a No vote will go nowhere.”
Tomorrow…The Future is an exhibition by Indigenous and non Indigenous artists including Blak Douglas, Karen Rogers, Fiona MacDonald, Pia Larsen and the Iwantja Multimedia Project from the APY lands in South Australia.
The show includes historical works from Chips Mackinolty, one of the founders of the radical poster movement based out of University of Sydney’s Tin Sheds in the seventies.
Tomorrow…The Future also includes works by Karen Rogers from the Ngkurr community about her uncle Dexter Daniels who was a North Australian Workers Union organiser who, alongside Vincent Lingiari, in 1966 led the strike on Wave Hill Station that became a turning point for Aboriginal rights.
In her work, artist Pia Larsen draws inspiration from the 439-word Uluru Statement, with the alphabet falling on the floor as a reminder of promises not kept.
Also on show are paintings from Tjunkaya Tapaya, the chair of Ernabella Arts, the oldest (75 years) indigenous operated arts centre in Australia.
“This exhibition is about listening and ways of seeing the future with hopes for a fair and truthful relationship,” Jo Holder, director, Cross Arts Project said.
Cross Arts is a not-for-profit arts initiative run by a small group fo independent curators operating out of premises in Potts Point.
Tomorrow…The Future
Until October 14
Cross Arts Project, 8 Llankelly Place, Potts Point
Voice Talk
