Marina Abramovich: apologise for your racist writings

Shocking leaked material has revealed that Marina Abramovich, one of the most famous artists in the world today, has shared baldy racist statements as part of her working manuscript for an upcoming book. In the extracts she calls "Aboriginal" (First Nation) people "dinosaurs", says that they "look terrible" to Western eyes, and details her distaste for their physicality. These remarks were part of a longer document drafted for publication, and lifted directly from her 1970's diaries. She has since acknowledged that the leaked writings are her own, but failed to apologise for the dehumanising content.

Please sign this petition to ask Marina Abramovich to take time to genuinely reflect on her racist statements and apologise to First Nation people, who are still living with the very real material effects of being dehumanised by privileged white Westerners. 

In response to the revelations, Abramovich wrote: "I have the greatest respect for Aborigine people, to whom I owe everything,” she wrote. She stated that the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes she had stayed with had deeply informed her subsequent work. It seems particularly one-sided to take so much without making the effort to be a respectful and informed speaker on their culture.

Artist Katie West, who is of Yindjibarndi descent, told the Guardian that Abramović’s words were “a perfect example of the continuing effects of colonisation ... The Indigenous Australian population is made up of individuals with their own lived experiences. In this excerpt, it seems this hasn’t crossed Abramović’s mind, and given the nature of her work, this is quite baffling.”

Please sign this petition. If enough people sign, it will communicate that dehumanising racism is not acceptable in the contemporary art world.

Marina Abramovich:


I am writing today to urge you to reflect on your recent and older statements regarding Australia's First Nation people.


Your comments were not only racist, but dehumanising, and you have not issued anything approaching an insightful apology.


You admit to having drawn deeply from the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes to make your own career, and yet you seem disinterested in learning how to communicate respectfully about these cultures and people.


[Your comments] 


Please use your substantial public platform to educate rather than to perpetuate ignorance, and to support the people to whom you say you owe "everything".


Sincerely,


[Your Name]
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