Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial (RRM) is now complete. This visual arts research project was active from 2016-2019. This website is an archive of that activity.

Listen to Brook Andrew describe the research project on ABC Radio Speaking Out program on 1 July 2018.

Listen to Brook Andrew speak about expanding research into the history of massacres in Australia and the need for memorialisation on ABC AM program on 27 July 2018 with Lyndall Ryan and Uncle Ivan Wellington.

Introduction

Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial (RRM) concerns the Australian frontier wars and the possibility of representing the magnitude of Indigenous loss and survival in a national memorial. Led by the Wiradjuri/Celtic artist Brook Andrew with a group of local and international peoples (see 'FORUM 2018'), the project focuses on case studies including investigating international examples of monuments to genocide and community approaches to remembering frontier violence. 

Research activities and outcomes include interviewing memorial experts, site visits, archival research, hosting a forum, developing a collective of Australian and international peoples, creating artworks, testing principles of best practice, and publications.

This research project aims to generate thought and discussion on what forms future memorialisation can take by connecting local actions with international discourse and projects.

RRM is funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council Indigenous Discovery Program (2016–2018) and is hosted by Monash University's Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. The project is based in Melbourne, Australia. 

We acknowledge the Boon Wurrung and Wurrundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nations as the traditional owners of the land on which our office and studio resides.

PLEASE NOTE: This website and project is not a history project and does not attempt to list a definitive history of memorials in Australia to massacres, battles and frontier violence. For a history of the frontier wars in Australia including massacres of the first peoples, we suggest the following resources as an introduction:

The multimedia project, the names of places, led by artist, Judy Watson.

"Colonial Frontier Massacres in Eastern Australia 1788-1872" https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/, accessed 25 August 2017.

Henry Reynolds, The Forgotten War, (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2013).

"List of massacres of Indigenous Australians" Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians, accessed June 15, 2016.

Bruce Elder, Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Australian Aborigines since 1788, (Frenchs Forest: Child & Associates, 1988).