Torrent Blossom
Torrent Blossom is an online exhibition centring artists and writers whose practices challenge the colonial state of Australia.
From turbulent waves of social, cultural, political and environmental upheaval, it emerges, bathed, in the digital blue glow of our shared captivity and consciousness. Curated by Firstdraft and supported by the City of Sydney, Torrent Blossom brings together a selection of new and existing video artworks, presented in dialogue with newly commissioned critical and poetic texts.
Hannah Brontë
Still I Rise
2016
Political. Psychedelic. Pink.
Hannah Brontë’s Still I Rise (2016) presents a vision of a future where so-called Australia is governed by an Indigenous female Prime Minister, surrounded by a cabinet of collaborative women – a mighty matriarchy – calling out structural inequality and working to protect human rights.
Within the opening address of this rap to the people, critical issues such as treaty, refugee rights and police accountability are foregrounded and summed up with the phrase “if you ain’t a white male your rights pale in comparison”. While the hyper-feminine futurism of this work could seem tongue-in-cheek or playful, the searing lyrics and sharp flow of verses affirm that this vision of government is more grounded and intuitive than our current reality.
Made in 2016, Still I Rise directly addressed the absurdity of white men holding the positions of Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for Women. Now in 2020, we have the first ever Indigenous Australian to sit in Cabinet holding the position of Minister for Indigenous Australians. However, there is still no treaty with Indigenous Australians, refugees continue to be locked up and denied their rights, investigations into Aboriginal deaths in custody conclude no police wrong-doing, culturally significant Aboriginal sites continue to be destroyed for white profit, and the list goes on.
Reflecting on the present, Still I Rise remains as relevant as ever and presents a glimmer of hope to revisit and aspire to. A reminder that no matter the structural inequality, women the world over can survive and still rise.
this vision of government is more grounded and intuitive than our current reality.
Hannah Brontë, Still I Rise (still), 2016, HD video with sound, 3 minutes 53 seconds. Courtesy the artist.
Still I Rise was commissioned and developed through Next Wave’s Kickstart program for Next Wave Festival 2016; and developed through Aphids’ Supermassive mentorship program supported by the Margaret Lawrence Bequest and Footscray Community Arts Centre.
