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Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#91

Post by [deleted] »

aflag wrote: post #56
karteum wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also agree that we desperately need more attention on climate change. In addition to that, to my knowledge no art was actually damaged by climate change protestors (who mostly projected soup on a glass, not directly on paintings...)

That's not accurate. They did destroy actual art. After a quick google search: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-protesters-campai... Is that really the kind of attention we need to the problem? Some lunatics destroying master pieces?

[deleted]

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#93

Post by mlyle »

aflag wrote: post #61
fleshdaddy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think so. The climate change stunts didn’t actually destroy anything as they only glued themselves/threw soup on the glass coverings. If they were really looking at it they’d see the different between that and this sort of irreversible damage.

At least some of the protesters did destroy some paintings. Eg.: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-protesters-campai...

From your link:

"Like the other targeted artworks, the painting was not damaged by the stunt"

Unless you're referring to the 1914 vandalism the article mentions.

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#94

Post by RobotToaster »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #36
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #12

I have a friend on a property with cave art here in the hunter valley of Australia. We really don't do enough to preserve it at all. He's responsible and ensures no harm but it's still weird to own private land with 10k+ year old art and have no one really give a damn about it. Compare it to European attitudes, eg. Lascaux where they closed off the cave completely and only allow tourists near the modern reconstructio…

> Compare it to European attitudes Yeah... Can we swap? Or like find a middle ground? Here in slovenia, we have socialist buildings from 1970s that someone decided to culturally protect, and the owners cannot renew the leaking facade and add insulation, because the outside has to stay the same, and puting insulation on the inside would reduce the inside space and make walkways and doors too narrow to pass (or carry a…

It's important to preserve modernist and brutalist architecture, so I can sort of see their point. I'm surprised there isn't another option in that specific case though (Can they not just add doors to the stairwell? Or do they oppose that too?)

Too much brutalist architecture is being covered in tacky "neo-classical" plaster facades.

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#95

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

spritefs wrote: post #64

Question for Australians here: is racism against aboriginals widespread in Australia? How does the govt work to prevent it?

It depends where you are. Cairns is very different from Sydney, for example, with indigenous Australians being relatively better integrated (at least as far as I observed growing up there), although there are other race relations issues in Sydney also.

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#97

Post by jpgvm »

discordance wrote: post #59
jpgvm wrote: post #47

Pretty unfortunate and disrespectful. Sort of emblematic of Australian bogan culture however. For some reason Australian teenagers are among the worst in this regard. As someone that grew up in country Australia this really doesn't surprise me at all. Contributing factor is that racism against indigenous Australians is somewhat fueled by the same sort of rhetoric that became popular in the Trump election campaign. No…

> the indigenous Australians I interacted with didn't do themselves any favors Aboriginal and Torres Straight islanders have experienced systemic, soul crushing racism for 300 years. It seems unfair to expect them to be cordial and have a nice discussion about it all.

I'm not talking about having a discussion with them. I'm talking about attending highschool in a country town with 30% indigenous population.

Also I'm acutely aware of what their people have endured. I personally don't feel like it justifies the behavior that I encountered in my schooling years.

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#98

Post by belfalas »

oluwie wrote: post #8

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I don't really think this is THAT big of a deal. Yea, I know the art is old and all that and it really is unfortunate but its also the nature for all things to change. Maybe in another 30k years, we'll be looking at the defacement as an amazing piece of art that tells the story of the current social climate at this point in time, or something along those lines.

If someone bombed the Vatican or the Kaaba would you consider that a very big deal?

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#99

Post by [deleted] »

aflag wrote: post #61
fleshdaddy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think so. The climate change stunts didn’t actually destroy anything as they only glued themselves/threw soup on the glass coverings. If they were really looking at it they’d see the different between that and this sort of irreversible damage.

At least some of the protesters did destroy some paintings. Eg.: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-protesters-campai...

[deleted]

Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia

#100

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #36
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #12

I have a friend on a property with cave art here in the hunter valley of Australia. We really don't do enough to preserve it at all. He's responsible and ensures no harm but it's still weird to own private land with 10k+ year old art and have no one really give a damn about it. Compare it to European attitudes, eg. Lascaux where they closed off the cave completely and only allow tourists near the modern reconstructio…

> Compare it to European attitudes Yeah... Can we swap? Or like find a middle ground? Here in slovenia, we have socialist buildings from 1970s that someone decided to culturally protect, and the owners cannot renew the leaking facade and add insulation, because the outside has to stay the same, and puting insulation on the inside would reduce the inside space and make walkways and doors too narrow to pass (or carry a…

I guess it depends on what it is. A friend of mine’s family owns some land where Tanum carvings are: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Carvings_in_Tanum.

The government probably knows the carvings are there but doesn’t really force his family to take any steps to protect the rocks as far as I’m aware. They are just chilling in the forest covered in moss and dead leaves all the time.

I suspect they would have something to say if his family tried to develop the land though.

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