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SEEING THE DARK REFLECTIONS FROM A BLACK CREATIVE By Dione Joseph.
He uri ahau no Caribbean, France, Ireland, India I whanau mai ahau i te taha o te awa o New Delhi I tipu ake au i e taha o te awa o Tāmakai Makaurau Ko Te Puaha o Waikato tōku kāinga noho Ko au te kaiwhakahaere o Black Creatives Aotearoa Ko Dione Joseph Kouratoras tōku ingoa
I am a mixed-race woman who has been making art for as long as I can remember. I am not alone. There are so many incredible artists from our African/Afro-Caribbean community who have been making art for decades. Our community has been here since the 60s in mass numbers. From scholarship students to small migrations and the mark has been indelible. Rugby players to mayors, hip-hop artists to hairdressers. But who has been paying attention?
The rise of Black Lives Matter in an era when everyone was glued to their screen drew the world’s attention to acts of atrocities that have been perpetuated and still continue to be against the Black body. The streets across Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin as well as so many other centres filled with people ready to march, individuals willing to show their personal and collective grief and those committed to demonstrating what true allyship could mean in a world where a mother's son takes his last breath at the crush of a knee.
