Biting the Clouds: A Badtjala perspective on The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897 by Fiona Foley

Description

In this groundbreaking work of Indigenous scholarship, nationally renowned visual artist Fiona Foley addresses the inherent silences, errors, and injustices from the perspective of her people, the Badtjala of Kgari (Fraser Island). She shines a critical light on the little-known colonial-era practice of paying Indigenous workers in opium and the solution of then displacing them to Kgari. Biting the Cloudsa euphemism for being stoned on opiumcombines historical, personal, and cultural imagery to reclaim the Badtjala story from the colonisation narrative. Full-colour images of Foleys artwork add further impact to this important examination of Australian history.