The Official Nonsense Thread

[Caspin]

Yes, I find that nonsense is always a good starting point. But oh no - more German words for me to fail to pronounce!

Yesterday I went to look at the Indigenous Australia exhibition at the British Museum. It included some terrific art including huge paintings formed from dots of colour and some ginormous masks, including one of a crocodile that was wider than I am tall! You were supposed to wear it as a kind of hat but I'm sure I would just fall over. It was very interesting but also, of course, quite depressing, since the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait islanders have been so abused and oppressed. It seems amazing that Australia didn't even count them in the census until the 1970s. And, as ever, while some of the items on display were gifts from the Aborigines or were commissioned from their artists, so much was simply stolen from them. On one display you have all this information about how the Aborigines have maintained their culture for over 60,000 years and how important their land and their ancestors are to them, then on another you have information on how the British Museum accepts the fact that they'd like the human remains of their ancestors to be returned but the museum refuses.

It's one of those weird days here for which you need both a raincoat and sunglasses. It's messing up my head, I tell you.