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week 4-1 | Otter.ai

week 4-1

Jiaqian Long30min

Unknown Speaker

00:00

was personal so you want to thanks a lot my practice and yeah, it's definitely one

Unknown Speaker

00:13

next up exercise.

Speaker 1

00:15

So between the 11th to the 15th the marches your independence, then you meet there's no class people because I did this last year I came in here and I sat for three hours by myself Strasse Elan. So that's not happening. What you will however do is use that week for your assignment. You're going to find one example of an exhibition, a performance event or project. Perhaps something that you yourself have been involved in is to place a decolonial curatorial practice, or artistic practice, I should say, can you identify the strategies use where the key river artists and your example Do you think there are any challenges or difficulties that arise as a result of adopting these strategies? This is really simple. I bought the word Come on, but it's between 750 to 1000. It's not very big. So again, one thing I will say I might help you with this on Friday, there is a opening act CCA for rigging songs, new exhibition. If you get a chance go to it because everything I'm talking about here rigging importance in their exhibitions, and their artwork. And that will give you an idea of how a practice works. Okay, so this will be due on the Sunday so the before you come back and write which is the 70 I'll be putting this off onto canvas as well and giving you more structure about it. And just wanted to bring this up today because

Unknown Speaker

02:09

yeah, independent study is right around the corner. So you will not be seeing me do not come here because you probably do or something. But you have to do this. Any problems next week. I'll be in it from 2pm here. If you

Speaker 1

02:25

want to drop in if you want to have one to ones before the class properly starts. I'm going to set up a little sheet just pop your name down. And then we can go through certain things and see how things work. Okay, that's all the housekeeping for today. Here's this reading or material that undermines the lecture.

Speaker 1

03:12

Okay, so from a historic point of view at the end of the Second World War, the major European colonial powers to France, United Kingdom and the Netherlands and Belgium were left we can tell you, according Lee in 1945, to new superpowers, you need to see some Soviet Union dominated the international stage and their support to the process of decolonization. The first wave of decolonization therefore coincided with the Cold War years, the USSR and China did not hesitate to provide vital aid to a number of national liberation movements in the hopes of weakening the Western camp and throwing these new states closer to them. Aware of the new favorable international context in which they find themselves calling these people began their fight for independence. For some this colonial liberation would take place through negotiation. For others it would occur by force within the Caribbean, it was very much about liberation parties became independent from Britain in 1966, or wherever they can stick killed, still kept the queen as head of state, the beginnings of decolonization and the emergence of the non alleged states. Okay, so the Second World War dealt a serious blow to the colonial powers, the premium them of their former prestige. Again, the that was Belgium and France were defeated and occupied versus the United Kingdom was seriously depleted. So really truly, if we think about colonization, we're thinking that colonization and decolonization are social processes, even more than their political processes. And as I go through to the seminar today, you're gonna actually see what I mean by that. So governments over people changes only the people themselves, only after the people themselves have sufficiently change. So from what we've investigated over the last three weeks, we can actually start to break down the process of colonization into the following. So de denial and withdrawal Scotland is famous for this. monoclonal people first come up on indigenous people, the colonial strangers will immediately be locked up in the indigenous, as we saw last week, as a people without culture, no moral work, well not values, nothing of any social value to merit kind comment. First, the colonial people, the neither very as this existence of culture of any merit among the indigenous people and indigenous people themselves, especially those who develop a closer relationship with the newcomers. Gradually withdraw from their own cultural practices. Some may even join in the ridicule and the denial of the existence of culture among the native people, they may quickly become quickly converted and later lead in the criticism of indigenous societies. And one of the things that you found in the Caribbean, especially for the transatlantic slavery, was the fact that they brought in religion.

Unknown Speaker

06:26

Religion was the brother ministers who basically said,

Speaker 1

06:29

well actually, you're not going to watch it x God anymore because you're now under US are rules. So you're going to be religious. And this is basically saying to you, God is saying to you that you need to help your master you're not going to raise your hand against your master. You're not going to do this to your master. You're not going to do that to your master. Meanwhile, the master has full control of view, you're no longer in person. You're kind of like an element of adults. So within the Caribbean, the photography the the plantation houses were built always on the hill. They always look to them. So they've got to go into the mahogany grills. They looked down to the sugarcane fields, they know that the enslaved people and everywhere that they could see belong to them. So you can be lit and brutalized and literally you would have some pretty sure in front of you seen, oh, but this is God's be and you have to deal with this. And so this was one of the ways of converting them from what they need to be their own religion into. You're coming into the fold. You're being colonized. You're not going to listen to us and no matter what is done to you you're going to accept it because your master knows best. So then there's the call it sort of deconstruction and eradication, and the colonies are taken like bolder steps and bolder actions. You're fiscally destroying and attempting to eradicate all physical representations of the symbols of indigenous cultures. This may be This may include a warning there are their tablets, your board images, the destruction of their sacred sites, etc. At times the indigenous people themselves, again, may participate in this destruction and some may even lead the destruction so ingrained in this ideology that they were. We then have from the eradication it becomes belittlement and in some insults, so it's colonization takes a stronger hold the new systems which are created within indigenous societies, such as as I said, churches, colonial style, health delivery systems, and new legal institutions will all join to be literal and so any continuing practice of the indigenous culture, churches will style indigenous religious practices as devil worship and condemned the practitioners to physical torture or their souls condemned to hell. Any trains and medical practitioners will refer to the indigenous doctors as witches, if their medicine is successful, and ignorant superstitious fools if their medicine fields and these new legal institutions will criminalize the traditional practices, find the practitioners and made it clear illegal possession of traditionally sacred or healing materials. Hair even symbols of evil must be imported by the colonizer in order for evil to gain this idea of legitimacy within the society, and thus we find that many colonized societies, the importation of things like Dracula, Halloween, or other representations of evil through the colonial societies, literature or legends, all the while they allude to the indigenous peoples representation of evil as more ignorance to positions. And again, if you watch any of the movies you will see this happening we're your you know, people who are basically having their indigenous use and things like Bush to to heal are suddenly being told that you don't have that their admission doctors in Barbados, it was very much about

Speaker 2

10:29

the food. So you would give someone an infusion

Speaker 1

10:34

of bush to to help them and they would be like, no, no, can't have any of that because nope, that's rude cannot have that. Here's here's a big thing about this. We're the people we're trying to hold on very much to their idea of religion. And Haiti is now one of the most hidden places in the world, where it's like, oh, you can't go to Haiti. Because it's voodoo. You can't you know, and even Louisiana. No, no, no, you have witch doctors. It's voodoo. So again, this idea that you're not enough. Your lifestyle is not enough. The things that you've grown up with your entire life, not enough. And so this is the beginning of breaking down and identity so that they kind of are better able to control you really.

Speaker 1

11:27

So that we have come to as a result of all of these things, it then leads to racism, which leads to tokenism. And so this stage of colonization, whatever remnants of culture that survived the onslaught of the earlier steps or given service accommodation, they're tolerated as an exhibition of the colonial rate, regime, sense of leniency to the continued ignorance of the natives. These practices are called for lowering a show no respect to the all foursome tradition, they're given token regard. And if you think about it, that idea of tokenism comes forward, right? We're talking about the Windrush generation member talking about black women having to self create in the 1980s. Because what curators said, No, your work is too political for us to other or they would have maybe that one person over the course of the 1980s there were only eight exhibitions where people of color. Most recently, Sonya voice went on our cable dig, and from 2000 artworks hidden away by us museums and art galleries, in their stores of warehouses, because these items were bought but they've never ever been shown. The people have passed on. Nobody knows who they are. And so you then have women lights on your voice women like lubaina, Ahmed, et cetera, et cetera, are having to be forced to to self create as very political because they're trying to work out there and males were in Britain, but we're, we're not late to where he attained how this is work. What's going on. But yet you've still got no you're not going to show you because the work is too little. The thin black line exhibition. Amps is a great example of this. They give her the things like an exhibition they allowed her to do it would be in her bed, but they only did it in they only allowed her to have it in the corridor of the art gallery. She was not allowed any given space. So as you begin to stand up on pick, kind of this idea of colonial ocean and coup and decolonization, you're realizing that actually, if you read it properly, you can actually see how everything builds up on everything else. Don't forget, when the Windrush generation came, they saw signs that say, No Irish, no Scottish, no dogs or blacks. So this continued from in Caribbean where you're told you're not human, you're animal. And so this is what the guy that's talking about speak right where he's talking about how does it feel the health of these people feel to to be told that they're animals and to be treated like animals, and then you become to what's supposed to be the great motherland. And you're told the same exact thing. So again, you can see how the layers start to build and through history, and that's basically what we're fighting for. This is not an easy fix. There is no fix.

Unknown Speaker

14:55

Okay, we're also going to in

Speaker 1

14:57

addition to all elaborate, that also have met transformation and exploitation. So the traditional culture is simply refuses to die or go away is now transformed into a culture of the dominating millennial society. A Christian Church may not use an indigenous person as a priest, permitted the priest to use the indigenous language, and then maybe incorporate some additional terms and practices within the church's framework of worship in order to bring more indigenous

Speaker 2

15:26

people in. So for me, it's kind of like of

Speaker 1

15:32

the Victorian workhouses. You know where you're like, Okay, well, we're gonna make you an overseer, but we want you to go into the streets and bring more people in, and it's painted like that. And whenever I look first at anyone who might or might not be when I'm practicing the Mormons at home, especially the Caribbean, I asked him to think about this of this and about issues in a hot boiling sun to come over and talk to you. And they may invite you but invite your entire family and then your family might go they're stupid, and then they get indoctrinated. And then they send about it. It's more and more and more so. Now we live in a society in the Caribbean. We're Mormons and it's that cm kind of mentality when I'm relying on researching this kind of work. I'm thinking okay, well, okay, so this is, this is how they've done it. It's like a pyramid scheme. But you're not getting money. You're just getting people and so indigenous art, which has survived may gain in popularity, and though forms the basis for economic exploitation, indigenous symbols. In print made decorate modern dress, indigenous musical symbol instruments may be incorporated into modern music, to support indigenous causes within the general colonial structure may become the political the popular, popular political thing to do. So the cultures are exploitative. And this exploitation may be committed by indigenous as well. And of course we see that we see that we saw that all last week. So this is basically a continuation of that when we basically see that in hairstyles, or in tribal Pearson's now, I'm not saying that you cannot have braids. And I'm not saying that you cannot have tattoos. What I am saying is give respect and merit supposed to go. You know, you look at for instance, the Kardashians who take on anything from anybody ever and there's never any fights or they it's just like, oh, this is mine. And it's kind of that mentality that you're constantly kind of dealers. I have friends who are definitely indigenous, and they all have three marks on their chin. And we were in London a few weeks ago. And this is something that's been going on with their tribes for like, generations. And this person came up to us as we're going to eat, and she wanted to know all the things about tattoos, did it hurt, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then she got a marker and proceeded to draw three lines under her chin and we were all sitting there like this and she was literally like, oh, well, now I am now I'm hip to this. This is a new thing. I'm like, This is not a new thing. This is their life. This is their culture. You can't just do that. And she goes like, well, I don't see any difference. And off she met my two friends who were all laughing and joking. And I find him as a curator. Can I turn this into an exhibition or something because this is ridiculous. But on the other side, it was here, my friends and I'm trying to defend them. And they're so used to people doing that, that they just sat and I was like, why are you guys thought about fighting this and they're like this happens every day. So if we think about it, from the indigenous point of view, there are certain people who have to deal with things every day. And it's not just racism or racial bias is literally things are attacking, you know, generations of culture that you're trying to

Unknown Speaker

19:26

keep alive and so my question is, how would you guys feel if that happened to you?

Speaker 1

19:35

Because it's with this kind of thought process that we literally start to figure out how to start to break these these walls apart.

Unknown Speaker

19:44

Personally, if it were me, I would

Speaker 1

19:46

probably have one after demand but with God. But you know, there you have to figure out ways and means to go like that's not cool. You can't do that. No, unfortunately, we live in a world where she did the market in the first thing in her hands when she was on Tik Tok or whatever and you're like, No, this is not me. You just don't do this. Okay? So when I'm talking constantly about who are you? Who are you give me your platform to Who are you helping to represent things like this that we begin to start on path right. How are you helping the person next to you who might just be so jarred, that they forget that they're supposed to be have to stand up for themselves?

Speaker 1

20:35

So having said all that, then, if we understand everything I've just said as colonization or aspects of colonization can we then argue that decolonization can be as simple as, and there are five processes to this. So there's recovery rediscovery and recovery there's mourning, there's dreaming, there's commitment, and there's action. And I'm not going to take you through what each one means. So each phase can be experienced at the same time or in various combinations, but the steps of colonization these phases of decolonization do not have clear meanings between each other. Okay, so we are going to start with

Speaker 1

21:33

recovery rediscovery and recovery. So this phase sets the foundation for colonization of society. People who've undergone colonization are certainly suffering from concepts of inferiority, to relation to their historical cultural, social background. You live in a colonial society, which is a constant and overwhelming reminder of the superiority of the colonial society over that of the underlying indigenous one. Many different causes may bring a person or society to enter the stage of discovery and rediscovery. It may be curiosity acident desperation, escape coincidence or fate. For me, one started with curiosity. I was interested in why when I first arrived to Scotland, I could walk up and down the Cannon Street and I could be only I felt like I was the only black person from Wales. And I was like, well, we're experts, everybody else. And are they all in London, like what's going on? Then I recognized that it became more

Unknown Speaker

22:41

about being a witness. So as a curator, who specializes in indigenous cultures and

Speaker 1

22:48

methodologies, I also think of myself as kind of

Unknown Speaker

22:53

witness of these people being in this moment in time,

Speaker 1

22:57

and how am I taking that idea of witnessing and putting it into exhibitions so that the wider populace can understand? Like, the problems that's going on? So as I said at the very beginning of this in week one, I curate for two audiences. Audience number one is just a general audience. They need to understand what racial bias does to your body over X amount of time. They need to understand what we go through on a day by day basis. And this is not me as anybody under the global majority. i The Second, people like to wait for our people in in the global majority themselves, because they've forgotten who they are. They've been beaten down, downtrodden, you name it, depending on what country you come from. My job, as far as I see, it, is to be able to say to you, Hey, do you remember this thing over here? Do you remember feeling that feeling of pride? Do you remember being able to champion a thing that you're very excited about? Do you remember being able to champion your own your one culture? That's this thing over here? So I always curate for two audiences. I have friends who shouts powers, for instance, constantly says I curate for the asker and the story nobody else people can come to see it. If they understand it or not, not my problem accurate for the diaspora. I'll work to bateau curious for two audiences. as well. So I can go down a long list of people I recently spoke to Matthew offered Williams. And who said and I said, Well, what kind of audience do you curate or make your art for your photography for? And Matthew said, Well, I can quote that people can come and get something from it, but other people will maybe understand the impact to identity to solve. And so for me, that's cute written for two audiences as well. But there are people I know who definitely only curate for the global majority of audience and they don't care. They do not care about whether you're an academic or a professor or another artist they curate for the diaspora. And if you don't understand it, then you want their ideas normies to tell you, Google can give you all the answers and I'm not here to educate. I don't believe that I believe that everybody needs a little tweak or push. And so it's important for me to do why I'm doing

Speaker 1

25:44

so today, we're going to talk about more. And for me, this is a massive phase because it obviously is a natural outgrowth of the first phase so you've gone through your rediscovery or recovery of your culture. And then you're getting into this bit we're there's a time when people need to be able to eliminate their victimization. This is an essential phase of healing, even in individual tragedies for one victim of some crime has experienced the death of a close loved one, suffered from a sexual assault. The victim must be of course permitted a time of mourning, and it's difficult to generalize how long people remain in the morning phase. Like individual responses to tragedies, society to mourn in depends on circumstances, perhaps present conditions to mourn seems to be the only thing to experience. The mourning stage can also accelerate the earlier stage of rediscovery and recovery. Just as you morning to get rid of that you're thinking I need to learn more about my people myself, right.

Unknown Speaker

26:52

So people are mourning off

Speaker 1

26:53

time versus as totally in the rediscovery of their history. Make it interesting interplay. Between these two phases and overfeed them against each other. So the phase may also be expressing great anger and lashing out for all symbols of the colonizer. And we actually saw this during Black Lives Matter. My statue went into the water. That was morning that was the people going light enough. Okay. So a sense of justifying violence, even words or actions can low cemetery meaning in this phase, milking each advantage of the innocence of one's victimization and this abuse of the morning phase can train colonization can just it's it's basically just a space where you're like, you're like a little rat on the wheel. You're just you're not getting any further than this morning phase and this is not good. Because it can turn into I'm you're hating the vision. People are happy to go absolutely no further. They're just stuck. In and like I said, this moment in time, and that's not anywhere you really wanted to stop. So then we're going to move on from the morning phase into dreaming now this is the most crucial is the face for decolonization. So here's where the full proper arena of possibilities are expressed. Consider through debate, consultation of building dreams for the dreams, which eventually becomes the flooring for the creation of a new social order. In this phase, all the Knights are able to explore their own cultures, their own aspirations for the future, consider their own structures of government and social order, which encompass and expresses its hopes. me at

Speaker 2

28:40

the moment. The island of Barbados isn't dreaming we make from being

Speaker 1

28:47

from Ghana independence in 1966, keeping the royal family as head of state in November 2021. We basically said cut that off you go and became a republic. And that is now Barbados. Everywhere you look you can see our prime minister being born like She's everywhere. Um, but she's everywhere in order to do a particular job, which just to get people to understand that we're ministers not. It's not we're not going to call them this Britain anymore. Or there's what they used to call us a little Englanders used to justify everybody but it's about giving us that like my stepping to our rule that must work out for ourselves, who we are what we are. What can we do as a small little island of 275,000 people? How do we migrate how do we bring people back? How do we do lots of things and so for me, most of the Caribbean is in this moment of dreaming where they're getting into rebellion against the royal family. Not just for the sake of rebellion, it's like more for the sake of trying to save ourselves have be be no need to figure out who we are, after all these years of being subjugated. Right. So crucial. This is phase it must be allowed to run its full course. If the tune is cut short with any action plan or

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