a picnic with the natives - the gulf

'a picnic with the natives - the gulf' 2015 is part of a larger series, ‘the names of places’, which comprises the producation of a series of canvases and a research-based mapping of massacre sites across the country. A significant aspect of the project is an invitation extended by Watson to the Australian public to contribute any knowledge of such massacres to be incorporated into a database and website which will be part of the evolving project. Through this process Watson hopes to ‘create a space where anybody can contribute their knowledge of massacres of Aboriginal people in Australia, so that there is a welling up of this aspect of our shared history. These places, names, details of such events, can be retrieved and held as part of our collective consciousness. This would go back out into the public space where it can be researched further and possibly be the catalyst for instances of coming together to speak these stories out loud.’

Through this collaborative methodology Watson is effectively mapping not only the events themselves but also the collective Australian consciousness of these events at this moment in time.