PORTFOLIO: Terra Nullius, Australia: Terranullius_40_DAV2010-1201_D01_40

Among the many profound paradoxes of the remotely located arid-zone capital of Australia, Alice Springs, is the fact that its original inhabitants live on its perimeters without any of the amenities assumed and enjoyed by the greater population; water, power, and decent shelter. Over a decade ago a long series of Land Hearings ratified that the people represented in Viviane’s work had Native Title over the land they occupied. As you read this absolutely no improvement has flowed from that recognition.! The ease with which non-indigenous Australians denigrate their first peoples to justify their own sense of entitlement and possession callously ignores the history of settlement. The faces Viviane allows to shine through these moments carry not only the weight of the daily grind to improvise lives, but that history of disrespect by mainstream society. Stuck in the middle of a vast land mass, Alice Springs endures long brick-hot summers and freezing winter nights. The climatic contrasts are dramatic as is the rock-bared landscape. With immeasurable resilience the desert peoples, contrary to most predictions of a century ago, continue despite the general non-acceptance by the majority.! It is they who most tellingly experience the weather shifts. They who must undergo the general sense of either being non-persons or irritants in their own country. They who wonder what really motivates our aspirations and responses. Yet they have maintained their language, their stories and intimate connection to the land, even those sacred sites destroyed during the construction and development of the town. These are the people who know the nuances of the country and the fickle disturbances to its more stable form.© Rod Moss, Australian painter, Alice Springs, Australia, 2012

Among the many profound paradoxes of the remotely located arid-zone capital of Australia, Alice Springs, is the fact that its original inhabitants live on its perimeters without any of the amenities assumed and enjoyed by the greater population; water, power, and decent shelter. Over a decade ago a long series of Land Hearings ratified that the people represented in Viviane’s work had Native Title over the land they occupied. As you read this absolutely no improvement has flowed from that recognition.! The ease with which non-indigenous Australians denigrate their first peoples to justify their own sense of entitlement and possession callously ignores the history of settlement. The faces Viviane allows to shine through these moments carry not only the weight of the daily grind to improvise lives, but that history of disrespect by mainstream society. Stuck in the middle of a vast land mass, Alice Springs endures long brick-hot summers and freezing winter nights. The climatic contrasts are dramatic as is the rock-bared landscape. With immeasurable resilience the desert peoples, contrary to most predictions of a century ago, continue despite the general non-acceptance by the majority.! It is they who most tellingly experience the weather shifts. They who must undergo the general sense of either being non-persons or irritants in their own country. They who wonder what really motivates our aspirations and responses. Yet they have maintained their language, their stories and intimate connection to the land, even those sacred sites destroyed during the construction and development of the town. These are the people who know the nuances of the country and the fickle disturbances to its more stable form. 

© Rod Moss, Australian painter, Alice Springs, Australia, 2012