ERACISM! Youth Multimedia Competition winner for 2009

The ERACISM! Project is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s multimedia competition is Ryan Presley of Brisbane.

The title of his original work is “What sobriety wears on its heart, drunkenness wears on its lips”

This is what Ryan said about his piece:

“This work is a response to the theme, ‘Young People and Racism in Public Space’. It deals with the legacy of the White Australia policy and the proliferation of jingoist ideals throughout the previous decades. This is represented in drawing from images of rioters at Cronulla (2005) where thousands of white/anglo-Australians marched in a racist frenzy. This attitude continues today, and is still highly apparent to myself at Australia day celebrations. Large amounts of alcohol are openly consumed and blind, explicitly exclusive patriotism is exhibited. The title is referencing several political commentators where they stated that rioters were ‘10% racists, 90% Aussie pissheads’.

This work seeks to disagree with that, and this is shown in its title. This attitude is a reflection on my own experience of having an Aboriginal father and a non-Anglo mother and the experience of ‘Otherness’ I faced, especially at public celebrations such as these.”
Congratulations Ryan!