Read on Twitter
Have yet to see #HighGround but have heard mob express their concerns abt how traumatic it was to watch.
I’m reminded of @FionaFoley_ in #BitingTheCloyds where she asks the critical question - how do we represent colonial violence without reproducing it?
It’s a task that @FionaFoley_ does so well in her work and I think it’s because she foregrounds the humanity and sovereignty of Blackfullas in all of her thinking.
It is something that @amymcquire too models - every person she writes about is a person that she has taken the time to get to know and understand. They are never Black subjects - they are family members.
Similarly @RonnieGorrie forthcoming memoir #BlackandBlue who speaks of trauma and violence amidst the unwavering love of Black family and community.
This is the beauty of Black women and the power of Black women’s writing in this moment in what it means to be fully human in this place.
But we have to be careful not to presume that all stories about Indigenous peoples are for us...some people still haven’t done the work required to make that possible.
It does amaze me however that in the rush to tell Black stories, there isn’t time to think deeply about the Black audience and their experience of it.
I remember watching a reading of brother Steven Oliver’s From Darkness and how swift white audience members were to make demands of it. And big mouth here had to speak in defence of a dialogue that took place in a Black lounge room. And yes me and Steven still lols about it
Why must the Black audience still fight to be seen and heard when it comes to our account of things? What room is there to tell Black stories in suburban cinemas that speak to Black souls in ways that aren’t retraumatising?
But yes I’m going to watch it at some point and share my feels via a thread most likely. #HighGround
