Said Dokins entreaties the world to preserve aboriginal culture and, more specifically, its languages with two pieces he recently completed for Brisbane Street Art Festival in Queensland, Australia. Both pieces accomplish their intention through participatory art with the help of members from various aboriginal communities. In creating “Stories of a Word” Dokins learned the inner machinations of aboriginal languages through conversations with aboriginal people as he sought to identify “underlying key words” “specific phrases” and the single word they would use to tell “a story of Queensland”.
Intrigued by the components of the word “aboriginal” I resolved to briefly research its origins. The term grew from the Latin term “ab origine” meaning “from the beginning”. According to the word’s definition, those individuals known as aboriginals descend from “a land from the earliest times” or the earliest inhabitants of a particular area. There is a large concentration of aboriginals who continue to live in Australia, whose inheritance to that land dates back to estimates of up to 125,000 years.
“Stories of a Word” depicts their words in white and bright colors that starkly contrast agains the mural’s dense black background. The script is unmistakably Dokins’ doing. The words are arranged in circles making a concentric circle around a larger, central circle, a hallmark of Dokins’ work that seizes the opportunity to communicate language’s infinitely pervasive nature.
“The Lost River” names these languages directly. The mural further utilizes Dokins’ “unique urban calligraphy style” by harnessing the artist’s unique creativity to arrange the names of aboriginal languages such that they form a peacefully flowing “encrypted river”. Here, though, the river features either obstacles or notable bends depending on the viewer’s interpretation.
Accordingly, aboriginal languages themselves have encountered numerous challenges, as Australia’s original inhabitants have faced epidemic and massacre alike. In turn, of the 125 aboriginal languages spoken in Queensland, “only three are classified as strong/thriving” according to Desmond Crump of the Information & Engagement State Library of Queensland. Dokins’ two pieces at BSAF direct the world’s attention to this cultural crisis.
Dokins is a based in Mexico. His work focuses on the inner machinations of society, ruminating on their influence regarding “conflict of power, destruction, survival and explanatory theses of the world as mechanisms of control used by imposed regimes.” He feels an intimacy with big cities, having lived in them his entire life. The artist experiences an unescapable draw to the streets, both for the dramas depicted publicly through the art that decorates them, but also for the particular medium they present. Dokins’ explains, “One can reach people’s daily lives in some way, infiltrating disorder, and in this way pass from private interests to public ones.”
Brisbane Street Art Festival is an annual event fosters a creative atmosphere within the local community through art of multiple disciplines. This year, BASF took place from March 31st to April 15th. The event focuses on working with international artists, and featured over 54 murals completed by 50 artists from around the world. This year, festival coordinators worked with Alethea Beetson, director of Digi Youth Arts to ensure “that the program supports and nourishes aboriginal artists, and that some murals reflect the stories of [aboriginal] people.”
Dokins’ work not only satisfies this goal, but invites the world beyond to marvel at the beauty of these indigenous languages in hopes of inspiring their preservation. Dokins’ unquestionably recognizes the importance of honoring aboriginal cultures. Their history, unfathomably rich but riddled with recent strife holds keys to the modern society we live in today.
Images by Toks Ojo Photography
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