I'm the Captain Now, 2016

How has your cultural identity been constructed within Australia’s socio-political landscape?

Imagine you have the opportunity to reconstruct, alter and subvert the construction of your cultural identity in the media or broader socio-political landscape. Utilising your area of study, research, knowledge or expertise, express or describe how you would approach this reconstruction (this could be through words, imagery, or a designed future).

In her 2016 series I’m the Captain Now, Millar Baker re-positions her mother, aunt’s and grandmother’s personal histories, using her grandfather’s photographic archive. In doing so, she provides an alternative perspective through which we can engage with complex histories and realities of faith, spirituality and social justice in Australia.

The visual narrative of I’m the Captain Now invites the viewer to critically engage with the complex experience of growing up as an Aboriginal person in 20th century Australia through the Assimilation Policy, the Integration Policy and the 1967 Australian Referendum that finally acknowledged First Nations peoples as citizens.

The series prompts considerations around the alternate reality that might exist if Aboriginal cultures were not suppressed through the imposed doctrines of Western religion. The works dream of a reality in which First Nations cultural practices, spirituality and creation narratives have a meaningful presence in an Australian landscape. I’m the Captain Now re-imagines how Aboriginal culture would be represented and known had First Nations people gained power over the British colonial settlements across Australia.

Have the perceptions or misconceptions of others affected your sense of your culture or cultural background? (Consider your answer within the context of your area of study, research, knowledge or expertise.)