In 1874 Sarah Brooks, with her mother and brother, walked nearly 700 kilometers out to the land of the Noongar people in the south-eastern extremities of the South-west Australian Floristic Region. It is still unclear how and why Sarah, an educated, accomplished, single woman, spent the last fifty-four years of her life out in this isolated place.
Museums developed and funded by European colonization often grapple with the morally blurry lines between public education and neocolonial exploitation. Elephant tusk — otherwise known as ivory — is embedded in these politics of historical display.
The world we have constructed appears to be hurtling towards disaster, if not outright oblivion.
Bologna, 2018. The odor of seriousness hung heavy in the reading room of the archives.
In the film Don’t Look Up, a particularly memorable scene features scientist Dr. Kate Dibiasky, portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence, tearfully proclaiming on national television, “We are all 100% for sure gonna f***ing die”.
