Natural history of destruction examines historical narratives of European settlement in Northern Australia. This exhibition brings together photographs of sites where history weighs heavily on the landscape: ‘Larrakia Land’ scratched into a tree following the historic Kenbi land claim, a midden of colonial-era glass, and a tree disfigured by a fence at an abandoned World War II army base. These images of past traumas are shown alongside occurrences of the turbulent tropical environment: ancient warring between termites and trees, and the termite cathedrals built for protection from the climate.

The title is drawn from On the Natural History of Destruction by W.G. Sebald, which examines the moral implications of World War II on German society. This exhibition is influenced by Sebald to consider Australia’s ongoing failure to reconcile a morally discredited colonial mindset. Collectively, these images are a protest against the willful forgetting of the problematic elements of Australian history.

Liss Fenwick is a visual artist based on Larrakia land in the Northern Territory, where they were born and raised, and Naarm (Melbourne). They are undertaking a Ph.D. at RMIT University, Melbourne, and were awarded the prestigious Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize in 2018.