So I've been doing some research on artists that I'm thinking about using for my final essay. I've found a billion and a half articles in the Australian that I can use (yay!) for sources, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Today this article popped up in my search for information on Vernon Ah Kee, and I realized that I had no idea what the Palm Island Riots were about....research time!

In 2004, Cameron Doomadgee, an Indigenous Australian, died in custody in the Palm Island Police Station. His was the 147th death of an Aboriginal in custody since 1990. Anyway, for obvious reasons, the public of Palm Island was outraged - the arresting officer is believed to beat him to death. That week, a riot erupted of about 400 people in which the courthouse, police station, and police barracks were burned down.

Ah Kee's cousin was one of the activists jailed for participating in the riots. His video piece, Tall Man, is compiled of footage of the events from mobile phones and news clips to create a twelve minute film of "a powerful narrative of an Aboriginal community that has become completely disenfranchised from a post-colonial Australia."