Terra Alterius: land of another

Abstract

What would Australia be like if it had been recognised as terra alterius, ‘land of another’, by the British, rather than claimed and treated as terra nullius, ‘land of no-one’? This question was posed by the exhibition Terra Alterius: Land of Another, which comprised works by Gordon Bennett, Barbara Campbell-Allen, Julie Dowling, Shaun Gladwell + Michael Schiavello, Jonathan Jones, Joanne Searle, Esme Timbery, Freddie Timms, Lynette Wallworth, Guan Wei and Lena Yarinkura, created or nominated in response to the theme. This thesis describes the concept of terra alterius and the exhibition Terra Alterius: Land of Another. It considers the utility of the concept terra alterius, whether the exhibition achieved its ambition to explore the political and social terrain of a reconciled Australia, and, briefly, whether the concept of terra alterius might be useful to other ‘terra nullius’ countries. It argues that the curatorial strategies – the ‘What if?’ re-imagination of Australia’s past, multiplicity of vision and active creation, grounding of the exhibition in affect (in response to Aboriginal painting), and working within Indigenous protocols – were effective, and that the exhibition was a useful means of exploring the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Comparisons with the exhibition Turn the Soil curated by Kevin Murray and the ‘retrospective utopia’ W.H. Oliver argues has been created for New Zealand by the Waitangi Tribunal provide insight into the nature of the reconciled Australia presented in the exhibition and what might be achieved by a counterfactual exhibition. From these comparisons, it is argued, first, that the exhibition points to a disjuncture between Australia’s ongoing official, psychological and legal terra nullius and the approaches and relationships present in Australian society (characterised as a performance of Bloch’s utopian function); and secondly, that a counterfactual exhibition, because it is not bound to the factual, causal or narrative qualities traditionally attributed to history, is able to explore the future in a way that contains rather than denies the past. Although the concept of terra alterius is seen as having played a crucial role in the realisation of the exhibition, it is questioned whether the concept’s utility extends beyond Australia.