Beyond Barbarians II - A Critical Statement
This project marks the second phase of my ongoing Beyond Barbarians series, developed as a continuation of the ideas I first explored during my residency at the V&A’s Fragile Correspondence exhibition. The initial chapter of the series examined the preservation of the Scottish landscape and its intrinsic relationship to language. This next phase expands the scope of inquiry to explore the global and interconnected relationships between Indigenous communities and the land, with a focus on the long-term effects of displacement, erasure, and resistance.
At the centre of this project lies a critical question: What does land represent when it is no longer accessible to those who have historically stewarded it? Through colonization, deforestation, tourism, and urban expansion, land has been systematically removed from Indigenous communities, with far-reaching impacts not only on their physical space but on cultural identity, intergenerational knowledge, and linguistic preservation. These losses go beyond geography—they represent profound cultural and spiritual disconnection.
This body of work focuses on several Indigenous groups whose histories and experiences with land displacement highlight common struggles, while also emphasizing the specificity of their cultural contexts. The Lakota people of the North American Great Plains, for example, continue to fight for recognition of the Black Hills as sacred land, taken despite longstanding treaties. In Northern Australia, the Yolngu people sustain ancestral songlines and cosmologies that connect land, language, and identity, yet face ongoing marginalization in national discourse. The Maasai in East Africa have been forcibly removed from their territories in the name of conservation, challenging their ability to uphold pastoralist traditions that are central to their way of life. This project does not attempt to homogenize Indigenous experiences, but rather to bring diverse voices into critical dialogue, underscoring shared themes of resilience, cultural continuity, and the symbolic role of land as more than just territory. The aim is to examine how displacement operates as a broader metaphor for cultural alienation and how grassroots and community-led movements have emerged to resist this disconnection.
In preparation for this project, I undertook extensive research drawing on a wide range of scholarly and cultural resources that have informed and shaped the direction of this work. The conceptual foundation of the project is partly inspired by literary and historical texts that interrogate colonial narratives and their lasting impact. The title, Beyond Barbarians, draws influence from J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, as well as Chapter 5 of David J. Mattingly’s A Companion to North Africa in Antiquity, which explores the construction of the "barbarian" as a colonial device. Key theoretical texts that have guided this series include Edward Said’s Orientalism, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind, and Arturo Escobar’s Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible. These works collectively critique the dominance of Eurocentric epistemologies and advocate for alternative frameworks that recognise the value of Indigenous knowledge systems.
To refine the scope of the project in relation to the specific Indigenous communities under study, and to ensure ethical and historically grounded engagement, I consulted a number of discipline-specific sources. These include Stephen E. Feraca and James H. Howard’s article, The Identity and Demography of the Dakota or Sioux Tribe, which provided valuable insight into the socio-political structures of the Lakota people. Melody E. Morton Ninomiya’s systematic review, Indigenous Communities and the Mental Health Impacts of Land Dispossession Related to Industrial Resource Development, offered a contemporary lens through which to consider the psychosocial consequences of land alienation. Additionally, James Cowan’s Aborigine Dreaming: An Introduction to the Wisdom and Thought of the Aboriginal Traditions of Australia provided a foundational understanding of Yolŋu cosmology and spiritual ties to land.
In addition to academic literature, the project also draws on current conservation efforts and community-based initiatives that reflect Indigenous-led strategies for cultural and environmental preservation. These include the Lakota People’s Law Project, which advocates for tribal sovereignty and environmental justice; the Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), a Yolŋu-led initiative promoting sustainable land management; and the Maasai Conservation Vision, which supports community resilience and heritage preservation in East Africa.
Together, these sources and initiatives form a multidisciplinary research base that not only informs the narrative and creative components of the project but also ensures it is rooted in responsible, context-specific engagement with the lived realities of Indigenous peoples.
Presented through a hybrid creative research approach that blends historical investigation, narrative reflection, and visual material, this project aims to move beyond traditional academic boundaries. Rather than presenting knowledge in purely analytical or textual forms, it draws on the lyrical, cyclical, and multisensory qualities inherent in many Indigenous storytelling practices—where memory, land, ancestry, and identity are interwoven. This methodology intentionally mirrors the oral traditions that pass down knowledge not through linear argument but through metaphor, rhythm, and repetition. At the same time, it engages critically with the inherited structures of colonial education systems that have historically dismissed these forms as 'non-academic' or 'unreliable.' By situating creative expression alongside rigorous research, the project critiques dominant epistemologies and asserts alternative ways of knowing, foregrounding the legitimacy of stories, place-based knowledge, and embodied memory as vital tools for understanding history and cultural survival.
Beyond Barbarians: Part Two also interrogates the role of institutions in shaping public understandings of culture and history. While the discourse around decolonization is increasingly present in museums, universities, and cultural sectors, there remains a persistent reliance on Eurocentric frameworks and academic traditions that marginalize Indigenous knowledge systems. By engaging with the ways land, language, and identity intersect, this project challenges those dominant narratives and asks how we can begin to approach art, culture, and historical scholarship from a more equitable and inclusive standpoint. Ultimately, it aims to contribute to broader conversations about justice, memory, and the right to self-representation in both public and institutional spaces, and what this might mean for urban Indigenous life.
The featured image on this website was sourced from The National Museum of the American Indian. All rights remain with the original photographer and/or archive. The image is used here for informational and illustrative purposes only.
