For hundreds of years sailors dreamed of faraway lands in the great ocean on the other side of the world, myths grew up about this strange place . Cartologists drew strange maps of the undiscovered southern land which was thought to balance the world. Dirk Hartog set out in his small ship and found some of its shores, other ships foundered on its reefs and rocky shores, Abel Tasman found a southern island and then some more islands even further to the east and south and called these last discoveries after his native homeland Zeeland. However it was Captain James Cook, adventurer and navigator who put Terra Australis and New Zealand on the map. These masters of the sea found what they considered primitive life in both lands and announced Terra Australis to be Terra Nullius- uninhabited- ignorant of a rich cultural heritage spanning 10,000’s of years. In New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud, they encountered more tenacious resistance which ended in Waitangi Treaty and the proud cry of the Maori that they were never defeated.
The English deposited their convicts and soldiers on Australian shores- setting up harsh forbidding prisons, then sent its squatter settlers to race across the land in search of grazing, and Europe sent its displaced people from two world wars to discover new futures. Yet the land maintains its hold on the people. The desert is harsh and forbidding and startlingly beautiful, precarious rivers feed the towns and cities, fires create havoc and destroy communities, flora and fauna, yet each time the land regenerates .The land cries to be treated gently and with care- the land cries for the insights of the aboriginal people who sang their way for thousands of miles to water and places without maps. The land cries for us to stand back and look, and to slowly absorb the earth, the trees, the hills, the mountains, the rivers and to treat it with respect, for when we don’t the elements are fierce and unforgiving.
I have looked for work from Australian and New Zealand artists to bring the spirit of our Southern Lands to you- to speak of its mysteries , its settlement, its nature and the transgressions we as inhabitants make, and the steps we might take to protect the future of our land our people and our children.
Dijanne Cevaal
Curator
February, 2010