With a poetically critical voice, Jazz Money lays bare past traumas entrenched in the nation-making narrative of so-called Australia. Jazz retrieves cultural knowledge by enacting learnings and rituals embodied within oral teachings of song, story and ceremony that have survived centuries of systemic erasure. In the neon work 'It's Always Been Always', on show at 4A, Jazz takes a reflexive look at the language in acknowledging the Indigenous history of this continent and prompts us to reconsider the true function of such protocols.

 

Dutifully recited to commence a speech, an Acknowledgement of Country serves to remind us we are guests on unceded land, brought about by centuries of displacement and oppression. The Federal Government suggests a 41-word statement to pay respect to Indigenous people and culture to act as a catch-all reconciliation, and it is here where Jazz employs the language of protest with a parodying tone.

 

The circular form of 'It's Always Been Always' hints at the call-and-response land rights phrase while challenging governmental policy: across decades of political (in)action, why is there ongoing sidelining of the Indigenous experience and will it ever change?

 

— 4A Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney