You may think the cuts to the arts isn't that important but let me tell you why it is....

by Jodee Mundy
"these are contemporary rituals being made here."

Naming the Damage by Alison Croggon
Published in Overland, 12 May 2015
 'Why and how art is political....'

"... Naming is a kind of magic: it is an act that both binds and liberates. The first act of colonisation is to name. The first act of freedom is to name the oppression. This is why power keeps the magic of naming for its own use. But we must be able to name our own experiences.

We are all damaged. We live amid violence that we don’t and can’t acknowledge, amid suffering we don’t and can’t acknowledge. We can’t face this violence, and we can’t face ourselves within this violence. And so the damage doubles and doubles, inside us and outside us.

It’s not that art can solve anything, but it does permit us to name. It permits a direct connection between ourselves and others and the world, a ritual enactment of cognition and recognition, of united intellection & feeling.

The knowledge art can give is almost the exact opposite of reportage, which gives us intellection stripped of feeling."

Full article here.