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Clip description
The chains fall to the ground after the massacre of six men. The remains of the men are burned, and then the bones are stomped by the shooters in an attempt to conceal any physical evidence. The clip ends with the song communicated through the spirit of one of those murdered, serving as a spiritual testimony, being sung by a living community member.
Curator’s notes
The visceral component of the massacre of Aboriginal peoples, the premeditation in both the shooting and the disposing of the bodies, reveals the physicality required to carry out such an objective. It reframes the somewhat arbitrary term of 'massacre’ as one fluid with bodily intention. The stomping of the bones into the ash of the fire fills the term 'massacre’ with not only callousness, but also realness, a body driven by the intention to remove another body. This clip challenges the way we are taught about massacres in history. Massacres are often, in history, carried out by bad men against victims, both of whom have no relativity to who we are as people. The power of this clip is that both the killers and the killed are human, and in this, an empathetic understanding of 'massacre’ is made available to us.
