The Art of Massacre

Broadcast: 21/05/2004

Reporter: Murray Travis

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: In 1838 at Myall Creek, in the Gwydir area, around 12 white men slaughtered around 30 or 40 black men, women and children.

Seven of the white men were later hanged after a legal process.

If you hate the so-called 'black armband' approach to our history, you might hate the next three minutes.

it's about an exhibition of paintings done by Chris Wyatt, on display at the United Theological College in north Parramatta CHRIS WYATT, ARTIST: The randomness of the massacre, the nature of the relationship the Aboriginals had with the overseers of the property before the massacre, changed my perception of how people could brutalise each other, even though they did know each other.

And funnily enough, while I was painting the paintings, Rwanda happened.

The obtuse approach that I've taken was on purpose, because I wanted these paintings to relate to all people, so that they spoke to people -- they didn't just shock people, but they saw in them a human compassion, a kind of redemption in the blue of the sky in this big painting.

What I've done here compositionally is place the perpetrators in the foreground and the rear.

The foreground figures exclude the viewer from becoming one of the victims.

I've done that purposely so that the viewer isn't a victim, but becomes a perpetrator by standing by and watching, becoming a voyeur and, so to speak, a perpetrator.

I've also shown no detail.

They're not didactic, they're not gory in any way, they're quite obtuse in the technique I've used compositionally.

And that's so that people, again, feel they can relate to this scene without being horrified by it.

It's not Goya's 'Disasters of War'.

It's about people and everybody is a victim.

I think nations are destined to repeat their history if they don't face their past and I think that's borne out by the last four years -- in Australia's case -- and I think also elsewhere in the world, people haven't faced their past and they repeat it.