Colonial Imperialsim and Indigenous History

Greg Semu, The Arrival, diptych, 2014–15
type-C photograph, 126.5 x 168.7cm (image and sheet);
Collection of the artist, Sydney;
image courtesy Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne; © Greg Semu

Check out Greg Semu's 'The Arrival, Diptych', at the National Gallery of Victoria, on until 11 September. In this large-scale photographic series, Greg Semu explores issues of colonial imperialistic representations of indigenous histories. Semu poignantly re-positions two hallmark works: 'The Arrival of the Maori's in New Zealand' by Louis John Steele and Charles F. Goldie of 1898, and its predecessor, 'The Raft of the Medusa' from Théodore Géricault in 1819. Read Dylan Rainforth's interview with the artist in our current June/July Pacific issue.

Caitlin Seymour-King