Brendan Kelly
b.1970- Ryde, NSW, lives & works in Mullumbimby, NSWKelly in the Abstract, 2021
signed lower left
122 x 122cm
Acrylic on plywood
Whether it’s Ned Kelly, the Light Horsemen, or the Americas Cup victory by Australia II, we as a nation in modern times have searched for something to identify with as...
Whether it’s Ned Kelly, the Light Horsemen, or the Americas Cup victory by Australia II, we as a nation in modern times have searched for something to identify with as ‘the Australian Spirit’.
Most Indigenous Australians don’t struggle with this particular identity crisis because they’ve known for tens of thousands of years exactly who they are and where they’re from, but for many new Australians ever since colonization, who, having been displaced from their ancestral homelands, and lacking rights of passage, ceremony and culture, do struggle.
So in a contemporary sense do we have an Australian Spirit?
Is it possible for a modern multicultural nation to have a multi faceted but somehow all encompassing spirit?
Most Indigenous Australians don’t struggle with this particular identity crisis because they’ve known for tens of thousands of years exactly who they are and where they’re from, but for many new Australians ever since colonization, who, having been displaced from their ancestral homelands, and lacking rights of passage, ceremony and culture, do struggle.
So in a contemporary sense do we have an Australian Spirit?
Is it possible for a modern multicultural nation to have a multi faceted but somehow all encompassing spirit?
