In DISPERSED 2008, Badtjala artist Fiona Foley courageously unpacks centuries of largely unwritten Australian history in one loaded word.

During the period that the British claimed ownership of Australia, it was common for settlers to drive First Nations peoples from their Country, leading to frequent frontier violence. To hasten this process, the colonising powers established the Native Police — special law enforcement contingents frequently comprising Indigenous men from other regions — to intimidate and displace resident Aboriginal communities. In this context, to ‘disperse’ became a euphemism for mass murder.

For those who know this history, Foley’s intention is clear: her sculpture is a monument to Aboriginal people killed in these conflicts. For those unaware of this history, the artwork is a prompt to reconsider our shared and contested past. By inference, the artwork also invites viewers to consider the relationships between contemporary Aboriginal people, the police, and associated figures and systems of authority.