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Inverted Museum of History
Inverted Museum Of History
In Our Shoes
Curated by Rohin Kickett, showing throughout the month of November, Thursday-Sunday, 10am-6pm.
Rohin Kickett on his show "In Our Shoes" - at the Inverted Museum of History, Fremantle Biennale, November 2021:
In Our Shoes - Photography
I've got together an idea for the kinds of images I'd need to tell that story. I'm using people and locations of today, but with the past policies. You'll see people chained up like they did back in the day with the policies, as Stolen Generation, with kids being taken, telling that story. But the whole concept of our history is inverted. So, it's actually happening to white people, not Aboriginal people. The title of the exhibition is called In Our Shoes. I wanted to give non-Aboriginal people the idea of what it's like to look at Aboriginal history from an Aboriginal point of view. Growing up, I saw the people chained up who looked like my dad, they looked like my uncles. The Stolen Generation look like my cousins. Understandably, it doesn't resonate like this with people who can't see their own family in those images. I am attempting to create a connection with our history.
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Public Program
Sun 7 Nov
3 - 5pm: Anti-Roadshow
Join members of the City of Melville local history and museum team and along bring an item of your own to appraise its value in an arena where value is not measured by monetary amount, but through historic, aesthetic, scientific or social significance. What will your antique be worth? Audiences are welcome to bring a chair, blanket and picnic and watch the Anti-Roadshow.
Sun 14 Nov
8am: Commonwealth of New Bayswater Mirror Regatta
Le Mans style start at 9am.
Sailing to the Fremantle Biennale Commonwealth of New Bayswater between the bridges in Fremantle.
The Award Ceremony will be performed by the Post Master of Downtown Commonwealth of New Bayswater at 11.30am with refreshments provided.
Participation is free but please register here.
Enquiries to Tony Jones on 0409 680 401
10am – 12pm: Underneath the Surface
Underwater photographers reveal the incredible colours, and creatures found underneath the surface with an exhibition of underwater photography.
3-5pm: River Dolphins
Meet members of the River Guardians to hear about their important work and scientist Delphine Chabanne will talk to museum visitors about the fascinating lives of our River Dolphins.
Sun 21 Nov
2pm Artist Talk: Rohin Kickett
Join us as Rohin speaks about the current exhibition, showing for the month of November at the Museum Of Inverted History.
3 - 5pm: Tales of Bicton - Percy, Jack and Oysters!
They say history is only told by the winners, but it not all about the pioneers! Come and share some local lore and tall tales with Melville Museums. Visit the Inverted Museum, and hear about the offbeat and the oddball – the unsung characters that knocked about Bicton, Castle Hill Estate, Point Walter, and the original river oyster beds.
Contact Us: No. 7, New Bayswater
The eleven (11) photos (and one small video screen) in the show are overwhelmed by the relatively large building constructed just to show them. There are four (4) walls for the display plus another longish one with a door in it leading to and from nowhere — plus a lockable room for storage. The museum itself is more fascinating than what's on show on it.
The men shown with (modern) chains and (modern) padlocks around their necks are whitefellas (it turns out) while the one blackfella is of course unchained. That's the 'inversion'. But the photos are taken in such a way that the whitefellas' skin appears brownish. I had to ask the Staff member in attendance to explain. I had recognised Jessee Lee Johns, builder of the museum, as one of the chained men. She told me that another is the artistic director of the Biennale, Tom Müller, another is Andy Quilty, a non-Aboriginal artist admired by Kickett (as he says in the interview linked below), and so on.
Art, I suppose, is intended to give rise to an emotional response, as well as thought — so I guess it worked.
References and Links
Photos of the building are mine. The others are my snaps of three of Rohin Kickett's photos. Never havings had any contact with him, I haven't had the opporunity to ask his permission. I did at least asks the event staff person on duty, who said it was OK as long as I gave credit appropriately. I hope I've done so.
All of the top text above is from the webpage at http://www.invertedmuseumofhistory.newbayswater.com
Interview with Rohin Kickett at Japingka Gallery.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on Remembrance Day, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/arts/biennale2021/inverted.html (it was last updated on 19 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.