Kait James Blak Flags
The idea for the flags grew naturally out of my broader practice of reclaiming everyday objects that carry cultural, political and historical weight. Flags are powerful symbols. They are used to claim land, signal identity, celebrate, warn and commemorate, and they have long been tools of authority, particularly in colonial contexts. For my previous exhibition Red Flags , I focused on souvenir felt pennant flags that were popular throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. These were mass-produced and sold in most major towns across the country, celebrating what places were known for while ignoring the true histories of those places and their Traditional Owners. I began creating my own versions, embedding political and pop- cultural references that spoke to Country and acted as reminders of what has happened on the land we are all standing on. Works such as ‘You Are on Stolen Land’, ‘Still Here’, ‘Invasion’, ‘Unsettled’, ‘Land Back’, and ‘Whose Country Are You On?’ emerged from this series. Blak Flags builds on this body of work and I created three new Perth-specific flags. I find it much harder to make work for places I am not from. This is not my Country and I haven’t spent much time here, so it was
important for me to visit Boorloo, meet with Traditional Owners and Elders, listening and learning to the history and spending time exploring the area. During my visit, a few things stood out to me and unexpectedly, one of them was the bore water stains. The power poles outside my hotel were marked with these beautiful orange gradients, reminiscent of the beautiful sunsets you all enjoy right along the west coast. At first I thought they were decorative, but I was even more drawn to them when I realised they were created by bore water, something we don’t have in Naarm/ Melbourne. Our earth is different, made up of different dirt. These stains became quiet reminders of Country, much like what I wanted the flags themselves to be. To reference the bore water stains I’m so fond of, I used a gradient of colour on both the ‘Koort Moort’ and ‘Boyli’ flags. I also loved seeing both the similarities and differences between our languages and stories. Seeing crows and black swans in Boorloo were reminders of my own Country. The crow ( Wardong in Noongar, Wah in Wadawurrung) is a Wadawurrung moiety, and the black swan ( Maali in Noongar, Kunuwarra in Wadawurrung)
is found throughout Wadawurrung Country. Both are important figures in our Wadawurrung creation story, and it was so interesting to hear and read about their significance in Noongar culture. Rather than creating overtly political or activist flags for Perth Festival, I wanted to focus on celebrating local mob. When meeting Traditional Owners in Boorloo, I was struck by the strength, power and resilience of the local community and how formidable they are. The phrase ‘Big Mob Energy’ immediately came to mind. Like many places across Australia, Boorloo is home to mob from all over. Not just Whadjuk, not just Noongar, many different Nations now live here (even some Wadawurrung!). That is why I wanted to incorporate all the colours from both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in the ‘Big Mob Energy’ work. Like in Boorloo, we need this kind of Big Mob Energy everywhere and always. ‘Koort Moort’, “heart family” in Noongar, is a phrase that feels deeply fitting, not only for Whadjuk Noongar people, but for all mob. We heart our families. ‘Boyli’, meaning power or strength, references both the strength of mob
and the Power Station itself. Given this is a site specific work, I wanted to reference the area in some way. I am drawn to the way flags act as markers of ownership and authority, particularly within colonial histories, and I use this form to subvert that language. By reworking flags, I aim to challenge what is celebrated, what is erased and whose stories are made visible. Within the Festival context, the flags speak to gathering, visibility and public space. They operate as bold visual statements that are immediately legible from a distance, while carrying layered references to history, Country and ongoing sovereignty. I acknowledge the late, great artist and activist Destiny Deacon, who first coined the term Blak. Like many First Nations people, Destiny grew up being subjected to racist slurs, including being called “black c**t”. In response, she reclaimed the word by removing the ‘c’ from black and, as she often joked, removing the ‘c’ from the insult as well. Blak, unlike Black, became Destiny’s way of self- determining identity, defined from within rather than imposed from outside. To me, Blak is not simply about the colour of one’s skin, but about identity, agency and a deep sense of belonging.
Kait James
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A Boorloo Contemporary commission for Perth Festival supported by Wesfarmers Arts
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