Cathy Busby - Writing the Wrongs

Righting the Wrongs, wall-text paintings, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, detail, wall-text paintings, opening, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, folder and Sorry book, 12.7 x 12.7 cm, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, detail, wall-text painting, open folder, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, detail, wall-text painting, back of folder with paint samples, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Ocular Lab, entrance with remnants of sign painting from previous corner-store ("milk bar") occupants, Melbourne, 2008

Vernacular sign painting, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, early in installation process, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, cut-vinyl mask, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs, removing cut-vinyl mask after painting, Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008

Righting the Wrongs (Ocular Lab, Melbourne, 2008) is an installation of wall-text paintings of excerpts from the 2008 landmark apologies to Australia’s Aboriginal Stolen Generations and Canada’s First Nations Indian residential school survivors made by Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd (Australia) and Stephen Harper (Canada). The two shades of pink approximate the complexions of these prime ministers at the time of delivering these apologies. In retrospect, this work was a prototype for the public art installation, We Are Sorry, part of the 2009 Laneway Commissions. In 2010, the Winnipeg Art Gallery hosted a version of We Are Sorry by invitation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.