By Walter Marsh, Photo: Jesse Hunniford/Mona, January 26, 2022
Launceston is one of Australia’s oldest and perhaps most characterful cities. It’s full of Georgian, Victorian and Federation-era buildings largely untouched by wrecking balls or developers, often bearing their year of construction a century ago or more.
With manicured lawns, flowerbeds and a classically inspired 1859 fountain, Prince’s Square pulls all that heritage charm together. But this week things are a little different. The bitumen around the fountain is painted with giant red letters spelling out messages of sin, theft and scars, while a foreboding soundscape envelops parkgoers.
A collaboration project between Aboriginal Tasmanian artist Kartanya Maynard and Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr artist Vernon Ah Kee, Waranta Takamuna! (we rise) is a simple but moving intervention: it’s disrupting the heritage facade of the square, the city and the colony from the inside out.
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