or
Panel:
The year is 1998. Times are tough. The rising tide of protectionism around the world has put the squeeze on Australia's economy. Its exclusion from European and American trade blocs re-ignites the republican cause and Australia's need to locate itself in the Asian region. The Federal Coalition, nearing the end of its first term in government, is busy closing deals with Indonesia. The Indonesians seem to be softening a little on the thorn of East Timor but still perceive Australia as run by colonials new to the region. Then along comes a great clarification.
We go back to 1985, when Professor Holmes of the Anthropology Department at James Cook University is awarded a government grant to trace the Macassan settlements in northern Australia. The Macassans are a sea-faring people from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They traded with Aboriginal groups in the top-end centuries before British colonisation. Holmes is particularly intrigued by the fate of Macassans who were marooned in Australia after their voyages were outlawed in 1907. He manages to trace one very enterprising trader to the suburb of Frankston, Melbourne. There he finds the Dekkers, a typical suburban family oblivious to their exotic ancestry. This news is particularly fascinating to the eldest, John Dekker, a failed sculpture student. He decides to find out more about his heritage.
Sulawesi feels just like home. Locals welcome Dekker into their hearts as the descendent of a revered trader thought lost at sea. Not only do they teach him their language, music and dance, but they also initiate him into their secret ship-building techniques. In appreciation of their confidence in him, Dekker teaches them how to use acrylic paints. One young woman, named Bala-jawaya, takes to the medium with great verve and produces work of stunning originality.
Excited
by this discovery, Dekker returns to Frankston and begins obsessively reconstructing his
Macassan heritage. With his secret knowledge, he builds a penisi, the traditional
high-prowed Macassan vessela wonder of ship-building. He documents this feat in a novel
titled My Frankston Bugis. (We should say at this point that bugis is the
alternative name for `Macassan'thus the expression `bogey-man'.)
Louise Adler, you receive a letter in the post. Let's hear what it says.
Dear Ms Adler,
Please find a copy of My Frankston Bugis enclosed for your judgment. The story has possessed me ever since discovering my long lost brothers and sisters in Sulawesi. Readers will not only receive gifts of precious knowledge from an ancient culture, but also some quite unexpected narrative twists. A girl, deeply in love with her brother, is forced to travel the world to find his double. She finds him eventually in Ujung Pendang, today's name for Makassar. Their romance reaches a tragic end, however, when she discovers that this man is in fact her brother, disguised as his double. There are some further turns in the story but I won't spoil them by telling you now.
I hope this manuscript is of interest to you.
Yours sincerely
John Dekker
Adler: Would you be interested in publishing it?
>> wins Vogel award
>> readers report: better than The Shipping News
Morag Fraser, one of your respected reviewers, Hubert Roos, is inspired by the novel
and sends in a review for publication in Antipodes. Let's hear an extract:
My Frankston Bugis is the first authentic example of magical realism in
Australian literature. With personal access to the riches of Macassan culture, Dekker has
been able to draw on seminal feats of civilization, including their ship-building prowess
and their epic poem, the Ella Galiga, the longest literary work in existence. My
Frankston Bugis re-connects Australia to its first visitors, who were banished by the
white man but now return to hoist the country into South-East Asiain mind as well as body.
…and elsewhere…
In a spirit of what we might call `suburban animism', Dekker represents life in Melbourne
as though it were an Indonesian village, where drivers converse with their glove-box
spirit along the Nepean Highway and an oracle appears as six numbers every Saturday night.
Fraser: Would you have any problems in publishing such a review?
>>Dekker in Macassan costume on the front cover?
Roos' judgment is vindicated as My Frankston Bugis goes on to win a swag of literary prizes.
Capitalising on his success, Dekker attempts to interest an art gallery in the work of Bala-jawaya.
Schwartz: What would you need to make a decision whether or not to show her work?
>> Image on the cover of the novel
>>Article in FlashArt
>> Recommendation from Jeff Koons
McKenzie: Robyn McKenzie, as editor of PostModern Painters, a writer named Liz Kirkman approaches you to publish her review: this time of Bala-jawaya's first solo show, titled McAsia. She's terribly excited about the discovery of a new indigenous art and speaks enthusiastically about its sheer beauty.
Will you take it?
>> It turns out that an essential part of the work is the way the artist seeks permission from the `elders' of corporations for permission to reproduce their `sacred symbols', just as we would approach an Aboriginal group for permission to use their motifs.
>>Is there anything else that would influence your decision?
Ok, you're interested. Shall I read you an excerpt from Liz Kirkman's review?
McAsia brings to Melbourne a revolution in indigenous art. At first it looks all
too familiar. The shimmering patterns created by white-cross hatching bear an uncanny
similarity to the Aboriginal painting of north-east Arnhem land. But look closer and what
do you see. A McDonalds logo? KFC? What is Western imperialism doing here? Rather than
consigning her cause to the ghetto of third-world resistance, Bala-jawaya makes a
transcendent gesture by treating everything as sacred. She is the patron, allowing the
multinationals to speak through her work.
Well, who would have anticipated the mania for all things Macassan that sweeps Australia in the last few years of the millennium. Ujung Pendang replaces Bali as the most popular travel destination outside Australia. KFC offers a range of Macassan Spiced Chicken. But among all the conferences, study-groups, dance clubs, perhaps the most impressive effect of all is the Macassan boat races, where locally made penisi plough the waters in an impressive display of craft and dexterity.
Meanwhile, My Frankston Bugis is warmly received by Indonesians. They're intrigued. By showing Frankston through Macassan eyes, Dekker has given Indonesians a way of identifying with Australian life. Film rights have been sold and the first co-production between Australia and Indonesia is in process.
As for Bala-jawaya, the success of her work reaches Ken Done proportions. Her designs are appearing everywhere in tea-towels, t-shirts and screen savers. There are even calls to appoint her as official artist of the Sydney Olympicsbetter than the old world capitalism of Charles Billich.
Then, as you've been expecting, comes the sensation. On the eve of the Olympic games,
Dekker appears on the Ray Martin show. Let's hear from a transcript of the interview:
Dekker: I'd like to announce to the Australian people that I am not in fact of Macassan
origin. I discovered that Professor Holmes was wrong during my first stay in Sulawesi. I
clung on to the idea of Macassan ancestry because it was the only thing that distinguished
me. Then I realised I needed to make an example of myself. Ray: What do you say to all those people out there, the battlers, who have taken your
work into their hearts and now find they have been deceived all along? Dekker: Well, let me say this. Don't blame me, blame the emptiness of a culture that
searches for spiritual meaning from some exotic people. Perhaps what I have done will
shock some people into looking to their own lives. Be yourselfthat's my message.
Adler: You're watching the Ray Martin show and your heart sinks. What do you do?
Adler: Your phone rings. It's the Indonesian ambassador. He's polite, but tense. He says Dekker has violated their trust by first posing as a Macassan in order to obtain their secret ship-building recipe, and then exposing their private knowledge to the world. He wants you to withdraw the book from circulation. Forthcoming trade discussions scheduled to take place on an aircraft over Macassar are in jeopardy. What do you say to him?
Adler: You run into your friend Robert Richter in a local café. You ask him for advice.
Richter: What do you say to Louise?
Fraser: You get a distraught email from Hubert Roos, claiming that his credibility is in tatters. He wants you to run an editorial denouncing Dekker. He pleads with you to stand by him. What will you do?
Meanwhile, suspicion turns to Bala-jawaya's art work. In a official media release, Dekker announces that although the works were personally painted by Bala-jawaya, their composition was determined by himself. In response to confusion about the origin of these works, their value on the art market plummets.
Schwartz: Your phone is running hot. A collector who has paid $6000 for a Bala-jawaya acrylic painting wants her money back saying its worthless now. What would you say to her?
Dekker, unperturbed, asks for a new exhibition, still under Bala-jawaya's name. Would you give him one?
Now, just when you thought the worst was over, a deputation of Macassans arrives on your doorstep, claiming to have been taken for a ride by Dekker, and angry that their culture has been trivialised and the real injustice perpetrated by industrialists overlooked. What do you say to them?
McKenzie: What kind of article would you commission to cover this scandal? A specialist in Baroque painting is champing at the bit to write a scathing attack on the Liz Kirkmanwould you let him at her?
Richter: Word's got around that Louise has spoken with you about the Dekker case. You're in chambers, about to go to court, and there's a knock at your door. It's Hubert Roos. He's in a desperate state. He claims his reputation is in tatters, not only as a reviewer, but also as President of the Oceana Book Club whose members are angry at being duped. Can you give him a legal means of bringing Dekker to justice?
Fricke: In your experience as a judge, how do you think that argument would hold up in court? What are your concerns?
Adler: The heat's on Dekker. You get a call from a respected ABC talk show to appear in defense of My Frankston Bugis. Would you appear? What would you say?
Fraser: Roos is running a newspaper advertisement denouncing the author of My Frankston Bugis for sabbotaging Australia literary culture. He asks if you'll add your name its list of signatures. Will you?
Richter: This time it's Liz Kirkman at the door. She's heard you're a bit of a specialist in this area. She sees Dekker as just another white man using indigenous peoples as pawns in their theoretical games. She's especially incensed at his sexual relationship with Bala-jawaya.
She starts talking to you about `intellectual rape'. She claims Dekker is screwing around with people's mindsusing art as a Trojan Horse for his own attack on `liberal' thinking.
Is there a legal avenue for her personal anger?
Do the Macassan people have a case against Dekker?
Fricke:What would you make of Robert's arguments?
Schwartz: Do you feel inclined to drop Bala-jawaya now that things are getting hot?
McKenzie: Fearing that the courts will not bring Dekker to justice, Kirkman wants you to run a special issue on the whole affair, exposing the fraud and vindicating the rights of indigenous peoples. What do you say to her?
Well, Dekker and Bala-jawaya stick to their guns and manage to survive the anti-Macassar reaction. What they've lost in the mass market, they've gained as art world celebrities. Their petard is hoist, though, when someone else starts exhibiting under the name Bala-jawaya. Hubert Roos and Liz Kirkman have decided to fight fire with fire. Can Dekker stop them? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the question another scenario. Thank you.
Dede
Pol © 1996
Last modified
27 Apr 2003
This product is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council,
its arts funding and advisory body.
If anyone interested in using a hypothetical scenario for an interactive CD-ROM narrative, I am open to offers.