Re: Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy

claudia@anat.org.au · Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:05:21 -0000

I was brought up to one day be a boss or marry a boss, well I should say really 
I was tried to be brought up this way after my MOST AMAZING MATERNAL GREAT 
GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER's deaths ? 

my dad IS, in an obvious way: very dark skin, black hair and big black eyes NOT 
GERMAN ? 

at a very early age when my dad and us, his daughters, became members of the 
GERMAN STADIUM in santiago chile, I realised that he had LIED all the time ? we 
were quite clearly not 'germanic' but something else ? this ELSE eluded me 
until I met my dad's mother at the age of 7 ? we were MAPUCHE from the area of 
RIÒINAHUE ?

Whenever I tried to acknowledge myself as AN INDIAN (which is the ignorant way 
to call all persons from any FIRST NATION from any of the 3 AMERICAS), I was 
physically punished, and this, in the most germanic of ways ? but I persisted ? 
when my family wanted to show their disgust towards my 'behaviour' they would 
always use these words: JUST LIKE AND INDIAN!!!

So I was told off for riding the horses like the Indians, be opinionated like 
the Indians, walking like the Indians, eating like the Indians ? and if for one 
minute these crazy people who happened to be 'my family' thought that they 
would create some INFERIORITY COMPLEX in me, so that i would become 'like 
them', 'they' were absolutely wrong ? I treasured in my heart the fact that I 
was SO INDIAN ? SO MAPUCHE ? I am the MAPUCHE IN MY FAMILY!!!

When I became a political refugee and came to live in Australia, I knew nothing 
about the PEOPLES OF THIS LAND ? I have been in this continent island since 
1989 and if there is something I have learnt is this: MANY LESSONS FROM THE 
ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.

I have developed my INDIGENOUS POLITICAL AGENDA by learning about the struggles 
of the PEOPLES OF THIS LAND, the ferocious battle to continue to exist, the 
ferocious battle to move forward despite the many atrocities that have taken 
place and still take place ?

I have become so MAPUCHE in this land of BLACK HEROES that I have stopped 
seeing myself as a chilean ? 

I am the product of this land ? 

it is the AMAZING BLACK PEOPLES in this country that have given me MY REAL 
IDENTITY ? 

my complete identity and the KNOWLEDGE OF MY ONLY DREAM: One day I will go back 
to 'chile', when I am allowed to return at least for a visit, and I will go to 
RIÒINAHUE in search of my real name, I know the day this happens I will be in 
peace  ?

 I am not half cast in any way I am 100% MAPUCHE, my father is LAUTARO and my 
mothers are called GUACOLDAs, TEGUALDAs and I know there is a name waiting for 
me, and it has been waiting for me since the day I was born ? 

it was a long journey and it was WEAVED in a magical way BY THE BLACK PEOPLE OF 
THIS LAND ? 

I have learnt to understand the meaning of DREAMING ? I was dreamt by a BLACK 
WARRIOR, I saw this most amazing man in a vision, he came towards me, and in a 
very serious gesture he touched my head ? after this vision I knew I could live 
in this country in a meaningful way, it was only after this vision that I got 
an australian passport because I knew I have been recognised by A CUSTODIAN 
SPIRIT OF THIS LAND ? I CAME AND INDIAN AND I WILL DEPART BLACK ? this is the 
greatest gift and the horror that brought me here is nothing compare to the GAIN

Cheers claudia {;-)

Quoting aka.leafa@xtra.co.nz:

 I think that there is no escaping the way things are and as strange as things
 are for me a lot of the time as a black woman in largely 'white' setting if
 that is not too inflammatory to use...I have learned a long time ago that if
 you don't know how to operate within the dominant power/racial structure, as a
 black person, you get absolutely nowhere. 
 I really think Danny's point about 'essentialising' as a 'white man' thing is
 very much my experience. THIS 
 There is no question when one is working in a specifically European aesthetic
 or imposing an essentially French and Eurocentric reading of artworks and
 locating where all art should be relegated to as far as style and content -
 but when discussing work from a perspective or peculiarity towards ethnicity,
 there appears to be very little interest in such 'essentialist' and 'bad'art.
 It is an issue with which I find difficult to negotiate in my practice. Damali
 is employing satire to discuss a very volatile issue and does it with
 style/humour/lived experience. I think her brilliance lies in the fact that
 she is able to discuss her work in the most Universal way [possible and satire
 was essentially a European genre is it not? No doubt that not all viwers will
 appreciate the African american struggle...but even as a black woman in
 another country...I am letting my hair grow long from stubbly no.2 , and since
 it has grown rather 'bushy' I have had 3 'white' women ask me if they cou
  ld touch my hair. Oh how quaint!
 > 
 > From: "claudia raddatz" <claudia@anat.org.au>
 > Date: 2003/07/25 Fri PM 03:13:46 GMT+12:00
 > To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
 > Subject: Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy
 > 
 > i love VARIERTY, i wouldn't like to live in a UNIFORM WORLD ... 
 > 
 > there is nothing wrong with 'them' and 'us' and 'they' provided that:
 > 
 > WE ALL RESPECT EACH OTHER LIVES,
 > 
 > WE DON'T GO AROUND THE WORLD TAKING OTHER PEOPLES LAND AND SAYING 'THOSE'
 > PEOPLE WEREN'T EVEN THERE (which is exactly what happened in Australia)
 > 
 > QUESTIONING SUCH STUPID THINGS AS: DO 'THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE' HAVE SOULS
 > LIKE 'US' (spanish pondering in the Americas)
 > 
 > DESTROYING OTHER PEOPLES SACRED LANDS AND THEN CALLING IT PROGRESS
 > 
 > the system in power at the moment likes UNIFORMITY because it is easy to
 > control people this way ... i am weird and i like it like this, i cannot be
 > put on a box and then tagged with: you are this ...
 > 
 > this system in power, actually intends to create alienated robots that
 spend
 > an entire life consuming products
 > 
 > it is a stupid system ... once more i am propping the agenda here!
 > 
 > cheers claudia {;-)
 > 
 > 
 > ----------
 > >From: Danny Butt <db@dannybutt.net>
 > >To: <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
 > >Subject: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy
 > >Date: Fri,  12:27
 > >
 > 
 > > tV wrote on 24/7/03 2:09 PM:
 > >
 > >>> much at all of what they have been giving for centuries
 > >
 > >> Critically, isn't the problem this "they" though?
 > >> Ie not essentialising a human based on colour, over generations?
 > >
 > > Kia ora koutou - de-lurking here thanks to all for an interesting
 discussion
 > > in an area of critical importance - as a few have noted our methods for
 > > exploring race in new media are so undeveloped, the languages and forums
 > > available so transitory. It annoys the hell out of me that race gets so
 > > little discussion in so many supposedly "political" forums which -
 surprise!
 > > - happen to be dominated by white guys. So much to be done! Thanks to the
 > > empyre crew for getting this moving.
 > >
 > > I wanted to comment on Tobias' point above, because the rhetorical move
 he
 > > makes here is to my mind actually "the problem": shifting discussion from
 > > particular power relationships (say, between whites and negroes)  to
 > > abstract, "universal" phenomena (say, "racism"). It's a move which
 attempts
 > > to take us as subjects out of the relationship: to seek a space where we
 > > *don't need to think about race* because we are not complicit in its
 power
 > > relationships, we are not "essentialising", "oppressing", or doing any
 bad,
 > > racist things.
 > >
 > > Now while that's nice and everything, surely our cross-cultural
 interactions
 > > show this to be unrealistic. We are always white, brown, black, male,
 > > female, wealthy, poor, educated, *in relation* to another person. This
 > > difference or solidarity creates a power dynamic. I think to seek flight
 > > from this power dynamic is to relegate it to the subconscious and place
 it
 > > out of conversation/negotiation. This is a standard default strategy if
 yr
 > > white and male because we are aware that in any discussions of that
 dynamic
 > > we are in positions of privilege not of our own choosing, and this makes
 us
 > > uncomfortable, and probably racist! Who wants that? So white male culture
 > > presents itself as not cultural - in Sharon Traweek's terms white male
 > > culture is the "culture of no culture" - it's just the "way things are".
 We
 > > seek to move discussions into abstract terms, rather than, like linda,
 > > acknowledge the very personal ( and often excessive and uncontrollable)
 > > emotions these power imbalances cause. So to avoid doing bad things, we
 > > withdraw into a "safe" position - but it is that withdrawal which is the
 > > engine of race conflict! That move to my mind also becomes a bit
 > > paternalistic if it privileges a "universal ethics" (e.g. essentialism is
 > > bad) - a white ethics! - through critiquing a specific intervention like
 > > damali's. In the *realpolitik* of race relations, our abstract ideals are
 > > challenged through the lived experience of our relations to one another.
 My
 > > view is that understanding our experience of those relations in their
 > > fucked-up, messy, unbalanced, irrational, unfair, and inherently
 *political*
 > > specificity is the way the relationships can move forward. And I think as
 a
 > > contribution to *that* project, Damali's rent-a-negro.com is a
 significant
 > > initiative.
 > >
 > > best,
 > >
 > > Danny
 > >
 > > --
 > > http://www.dannybutt.net
 > >
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > empyre forum
 > > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
 > > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
 > _______________________________________________
 > empyre forum
 > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
 > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
 > 

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