Radical Cross Stitch

Sorry Fence

On Wednesday Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Government to the Aboriginal People for the policy of enforced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. This was a policy with the intention of breeding out Aboriginal People and saw more than 50,000 children removed from their families. In some cases, this involved three generations of children being removed.

This apology has been a very, very long time coming and I think the number of tears shed on Wednesday by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is testament to the burden this has been on the nation.

I was asked to honour the day with a fence intervention (ironically). I was proud to help commemorate the occasion. And after about 7 hours of ’stitching’ and countless hours of finger knitting I finished a giant SORRY on the fence of Section 8 Container Bar in Tattersalls Lane.

I finished this well into the evening so the first finished shot is a bit dark.

An up close shot of the R . I think the fence grid was about 5cm to give you an idea of scale.

The work in progress

I went back a couple of days later to get some more photos.

The response from passers by has been amazing with many people stopping to take photos. And no one has tried to vandalise it yet which makes me really happy!

What I really like about this one is that you have to look through it into the space. And while the text is very obvious to see, it doesn’t obscure the fence at all. Normally that wouldn’t bother me, but this is a fence with a very specific purpose. I also love the softness of the wool. I think it adds more feeling to the statement. Wool reminds me of a warm winter hug, and this wool shows how much love and warmth is meant from us non-Indigenous activists who support this apology.