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ABC News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Connections and collections: The pope, the prime minister and the ethics of diplomatic gift exchange - ABC Religion & Ethics
Whether you are Catholic or not — and despite the competing demands of the never-ending attention economy — chances are that you, like us, were glued to your news feeds last month as Pope Leo XIV was inaugurated and led his first mass. For a couple of weeks our screens were saturated by striking images of the ancient rituals as well as drone-eye views of the 200,000 people drawn to experience the event in St Peter's Square. Of the hundreds of images that we saw throughout these papal proceedings, there was one that struck us as particularly noteworthy. It was that of newly re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's private audience with the new pontiff on 19 May. The photograph shows the pope holding a painting by Ngarrindjeri artist Amanda Westley that had been given to him by Albanese on behalf of the Australian people. The photograph captures a personal experience as well as formal transaction — an agreement to act in good faith — between nations and their leaders. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese presents Pope Leo XIV with a painting by Amanda Westley called 'Raukkan' — the Ngarrindjeri word for 'meeting place' — at the Apostolic Palace on 19 May 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images) The human experience of exchange that is captured in this photograph is also reflected in Westley's artwork. Called Raukkan — the Ngarrindjeri word for 'meeting place' — the painting emphasises the importance of working towards culturally respectful processes of understanding and communication. The photograph indicates the full range of human experience — from feelings of hopefulness to histories of loss — that accompany all forms of cultural exchange, including those carried out in the name of colonial progress. The photograph, and the painting it shows, offers a tantalising insight into ritual aspects of Leo's inauguration. It also signals the importance of exchange in cultural diplomacy more broadly. The giving and receiving of gifts The pope's extensive programs of meetings with dozens of world leaders and 150 formal delegations beyond the formal mass would have resulted in hundreds of gifts being exchanged. Images of the events provide a small window into the gifts that the new pope received — they included a Chicago Bears T-shirt with Leo's name on it from the US Vice President that honoured the pope's early years in the American city. Beyond the carefully curated official images distributed by Vatican Media, not much public information is available about gifting between the pope and heads of state. This is a shame because objects play a significant role in shaping human identity, culture and social relationships. Gifts also convey important information about how the giver wishes to be seen as well as who they are representing. A spokesperson for the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet would only confirm that the prime minister received three gifts from the pope: a terracotta plaque/artwork called The Care of Creation ; a book called L'Appartamento delle Udienze Pontificie ( The Pontifical Apartments used for Audiences ); and a 'Vatican Museum Edition Pocket Emptier'. They would not answer questions about the collection that holds the items gifted from the pope to the prime minister, the history of this important collection, where it is held, or even how Australians might learn about or access items in this historical collection which is held in their name. They would not describe the gifts. There is, moreover, only sparse public information about the process that led to the selection of Westley's painting. We understand that the piece was purchased from the Gallery of Small Things in Canberra, but that neither the artist nor the gallerist were advised about the reason for the purchase. It was such a surprise to the artist to learn from social media that her painting had been gifted that she did not initially believe the work to be hers. 'The soul of the world' Research into the Vatican Museums, in contrast, tells us something about how popes have received and stored gifts over the centuries from heads of state, dignitaries and other delegations. Located inside Vatican City, parts of the Vatican Museums have been home to previous popes as their Apostolic Palaces. They were built around St Peter's Basilica, which was constructed on the burial site of Saint Peter, a place of pilgrimage for the Catholic world. The Basilica we saw in media coverage of the pope's inauguration was initially planned by Pope Nicholas V in the fifteenth century, then designed and decorated by famous Italian Renaissance masters, artists, sculptors and architects. The museum was founded in the early sixteenth century by Pope Julius II, who opened some of the private spaces including the Sistine Chapel to the public. For the first time, visitors were able to experience masterpieces like the Greek marble sculpture Laocoön and His Sons and a suite of rooms decorated by Renaissance master Raphael, including his fresco, School of Athens . The statue of 'Laocoön and His Sons' on display in the Museo Pio-Clementino, a part of the Vatican Museums, on 4 August 2012, in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Lucas Schifres / Getty Images) Rather than being just one museum, Vatican Museums is a complex of 26 museums and areas that hold tens of thousands of objects and artworks amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries. Of particular relevance to Australia is a lesser-known department called Anima Mundi — Peoples, Arts and Cultures , an ethnographic museum, established in 1926 but which dates back to gifts sent from the Americas to Pope Innocent XII in 1691. Today, Anima Mundi includes roughly 80,000 artefacts (a number that includes individual items such as small pre-Columbian pottery fragments, for example). It also houses gifts received by pontiffs throughout past centuries as well non-European art and a collection of Indigenous Australian artefacts. This collection was assessed in 1986 by the then Director of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Professor Warwick Dix, who concluded that there were no human remains, or sacred objects of concern. Indigenous peoples, their rights and responsibilities are becoming increasingly important which is reflected in the growing engagement between communities with museums and collections. Reconnecting world collections with the communities they came from is now also seen as essential, to guide ongoing discussions of care, for exhibitions and future direction of curatorship or possible claims of repatriation for this collection and many others. Although not every object gifted to popes ends up in the official Vatican collections, official gifting has always been part of historical and contemporary diplomacy. An exchange of ideas and good will between state representatives, including with the Vatican, gifting has been associated with the projects of spreading religious as well as political ideas. A gift of state often aims to capture the essence of a nation. They may be chosen for showcasing local cultures and unique traditions or craftsmanship. Often, gifts accepted into the Vatican collections are valued for representing different or shared forms of spirituality, which may explain their designation in the ethnographic (non-European) museum of Anima Mundi . Gifts, attention and accountability Popes since Pope Pius XI have travelled extensively and shared and received gifts as part of their work. The most travelled pope was Pope John Paul II, who famously travelled to 129 countries during his 26-year papacy. During a visit to Australia in 1999, he received gifts including an oil painting on wood in the shape of a coolamon by Eastern Arrernte woman Kathleen Wallace from Ltyentye Apurte, Central Australia, called She Brings God's Word . Popes also commonly receive gifts from visiting delegations, as was the case during the recent inauguration of Pope Leo XIV. For the 2010 canonisation of Australia's first saint, Sister Mary McKillop, Pope Benedict XVI received gifts that included an acrylic painting on canvas entitled Pilgrimage created by Murri artist Yvonne O'Neill. The painting has concentric circles with connecting pathways that represent the journey lines or pilgrimage made by the Australians from St Joseph's Nudgee College in Brisbane and the Australian Catholic University who travelled to the Vatican for this event. About her painting, O'Neill said that 'the process of creating this painting helped to deepen my understanding of the Catholic faith by providing a tangible opportunity for reflection.' As O'Neill's statement suggests, the gifts have significance that extends far beyond the ritual of exchange that is staged for official photographers. Many of the gifted artworks that have been created in recent years by First Nations artists — including Yvonne O'Neill, Kathleen Wallace and Amanda Westley — convey power and authority over land. Their work demands something in return from the person who is in receipt of their art. Even where the artist has not been present for the exchange, the ties to Country that are represented becomes part of the contract of symbolic reciprocity that is a key feature of diplomacy. They ask for attention and accountability — by the recipient of the gift as well as the world looking at the visual record of the event. One of the stones of the winds that adorn the square of St Peter's Basilica, one of the most visited places in the world and in Rome for its immense artistic and architectural treasures. (Beto Creative / iStock Unreleased / Getty Images) What this all means, in a sense, is that the gifts and the official images become witness to an agreement between contemporary heads of state, especially in the absence of further public information. They also — and more importantly — stand in for the artist and the communities represented in paintings. Father Nicola Mapelli, who was director and curator of Anima Mundi for 15 years (2009–2023), refers to the items in this museum as 'cultural ambassadors', which would seem to recognise this role. Diplomatic gift exchange was not invented last month with the inauguration of the new pope. Contemporary gifts made by Indigenous artists carry the legacy of colonisation, which was also a process of cultural transfer. The ethics of gift exchange need to be discussed more openly. This might include more open public discussion about how and why certain gifts are selected to represent a nation. It might include more transparency about what Australia does with official gifts and information about how the public can access them. Most of all, discussion about diplomatic gift exchange needs to move beyond the superficial idea that it represents a symbolic form of reciprocity to articulate the loss of real agency, sovereignty and power over the land that has been painted in the three artworks by Yvonne O'Neill, Kathleen Wallace and Amanda Westley. Katherine Aigner is a Research Fellow in Repatriation and Natural History at the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University. For over 10 years she worked at Anima Mundi — Peoples, Arts and Cultures on re-connecting their Indigenous collections with source communities. Her books include Australia: The Vatican Museums Indigenous Collection and Oceania and Island Southeast Asia. Kylie Message is Professor of Public Humanities and Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University. She is the author of books including Museums and Social Activism: Engaged Protest, Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street and Museums and Racism.
ABC News
02-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Blak In-Justice exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art is 'a wake-up call'
When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican in early May, he took with him, by way of gift for the new Catholic Church head, a painting by Ngarrindjeri artist Amanda Westley. "I wonder if the Pope knew that we're 36 per cent of the prison population when he received that painting," Barkindji artist Kent Morris says. I've driven though a miserable autumn day in Melbourne to Heide Gallery in the city's leafy eastern suburbs to meet Morris, the curator and director of the First Nations-led not-for-profit organisation, The Torch project. As we chat, he's walking me through his latest curation, the incredible exhibition Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience. "Our artwork and culture is somehow revered on the international stage and high enough for an exchange at that level, but yet, we're the most incarcerated people on the planet." Since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Indigenous incarceration rates have more than doubled, and deaths in custody have continued to rise. "I think generally, as a nation, it's just seen as something that's, well, it is what it is," Morris says. "It's a huge stain on this nation." Morris is warm, smiles easily. But it's clear this exhibition is close to his heart. When I ask him what's inspired it, his response is: "Sheer frustration." Morris is incensed by the over-representation of Indigenous people in our legal system. But, he adds, Blak In-Justice has also provided an opportunity to bring together works by First Nations artists who have created political art engaging with the problem. "It's a call of concern ... but it's also a call for action," he says. That action is to turn around a brutal series of statistics. Morris highlights some: Indigenous people are 4 per cent of the population, yet 36 per cent of the national adult prison population. Indigenous men are 17 times more likely to go to prison than non-Indigenous men. Indigenous women are 27 times more likely to be incarcerated. As we walk down the corridor leading into the exhibition, my eyes fix on a quote plastered across the archway. It's from the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. "We are not an innately criminal people," reads part of it. Blak In-Justice presents works by the who's who of Australian First Peoples artists — Richard Bell, Reko Rennie, Gordon Bennett, Jimmie Pike, Destiny Deacon — alongside works by participants in The Torch program, which brings art teaching and support to currently incarcerated or recently released First Peoples in Victoria. The first room of the Blak In-Justice exhibition presents the full force of the problem. The walls are painted a dusty blue — symbolic of both the blue stone of the earth, representing Country, and the bluestone walls of Loddon, of Pentridge, common to our prisons and former prisons in Victoria. "The exhibition's grounded in Country," Morris explains. "Even the bluestone walls — that's rock from the Country as well. And those prisons are built on our Country too." Set against the walls are visceral works from well-known Indigenous artists. The bright hues of Reko Rennie's Three Little Pigs (2024), depicting three white police officers against a red background holding down a faceless Indigenous figure in yellow, a police officer's knee in the restrained man's back. The red scars and hanging ropes of Gordon Bennett's Bloodlines (1993). A striking work, Blood Tears (2023) by Judy Watson is at one end of the room, made up of long red strips of plastic, punched out with the names of Aboriginal people who have died in custody, in Braille. The works are in-your-face, political, satirical, shocking, starkly depicting police brutality and the systemic problems of the justice system Indigenous people are up against. Some of it is hard to look at, but that — Morris says — is the point. "This is hard-hitting. But it's all truth-telling, you know? It's shared and lived experiences." He says this gravely, before his eyes fire up, his gears shift. "I mean, here," Morris says, steering me towards the next room, "Well, this is the solution that we've created for ourselves." The next part of the exhibition opens out in walls painted in soft ochre, the themes and colours presented in the works displayed against them offering a vastly different experience to that of the room before. Playfully painted emus appear in frames with candy-bright backgrounds, splendid blue wrens and pelicans against a black-and-white diamond pattern. In the centre, carved wooden pelicans gather in a circle. Morris tells me proudly that this work by Torch participant Daniel Church, Pelican Mudjin (Family), 2022, was acquired as part of the National Gallery of Victoria's permanent collection. Morris says the support The Torch provides to connect or reconnect artists with art practice, Country and culture gives them strength and purpose. And, importantly, the money the participants make from their art (100 per cent of the artwork price goes to the artist) enables them to support their families and imagine a life for themselves beyond prison. "[It means] you're not just on the outside of society. You're actually included, and you have a part to play, and you have a story to tell." As we walk through Blak In-Justice, Morris's stories send us zig-zagging across the room — stories of those in The Torch who have gone on to major art awards, like ceramicist Raymond Young, or who have come back to teach or otherwise work as part of the program, like Stacey Edwards. "It's not just based around being an artist," Morris says. "This really is about people removing the shackles and finding their pathway. People are going into employment, education, training and employment, a whole range of areas." Morris says every year artists come up to him to say, "This saved my life. This program saved my life." He wants to see that fact getting broader recognition and support. "Solutions [to Indigenous over-representation in prisons] won't come from the non-Indigenous community, but they really need the support of the non-Indigenous community. The Torch's success story is told not only in the stats (the recidivism rates of participants is more than half that of non-participants), but in these human stories, many of whose voices are part of the exhibition, through video documentary, panels accompanying their works and in large quotes on the walls. For Morris, it's not surprising the program has had such success because it's been developed for Indigenous people, by Indigenous people. Although The Torch began in 2011, it was built on the back of more than 40 years of activism and listening to community. "Solutions will only come from our community because we're the ones who have the most at stake," he says. "We care the most, and we believe and have hope. And this is one extraordinary example." Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience is at Heide Museum of Modern Art (Naarm/Melbourne) until July 20, 2025.
The Advertiser
30-05-2025
- The Advertiser
Beyond the suits: meet the trailblazing women who shaped Australia's capital
VISIT: At Canberra's tiniest walk-in gallery, the colourful and eclectic Gallery of Small Things, you can browse the itty-bitty art and talk all things tiny with founder and ceramicist, Anne Masters. Conversely, this is where Australia's recent gift to the new Pope - a painting by South Australian artist Amanda Westley - was secretly purchased. EXPLORE: The National Gallery of Australia's 13-tonne, $14 million Ouroboros is a thought-provoking immersive outdoor sculpture where the experience changes every time one visits. LINGER: The National Portrait Gallery is often overlooked in favour of the other attractions, but it's worth devoting a serious chunk of time to ponder our national identity. STAY: East Hotel has big rooms, chic design and friendly service. Don't miss the carbonara scrambled eggs at Agostinis for breakfast. EAT: REBEL REBEL and Corella are both very special, very Canberra dining experiences that will have you dreaming about the food for weeks.
ABC News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese formally invites Pope Leo XIV to Australia in Vatican meeting
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, formally inviting the new pontiff to Australia for a major Catholic conference that Sydney will host in 2028. Mr Albanese met Leo XIV the day after the new pope's inaugural mass in Rome, hours after the pontiff met US Vice-President JD Vance. He is the first prime minister to have a private audience with the pope since Kevin Rudd, who met Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. The ABC has been told that Mr Albanese and the pope discussed their shared concerns about conflicts around the world and the humanitarian catastrophes they have wrought. The pope also blessed rosary beads that had been owned by the prime minister's mother Maryanne, a staunch Catholic who passed away in 2002. On Sunday Pope Leo XIV called for peace in Gaza, Myanmar and Ukraine during a Sunday blessing at the end of his inaugural mass in St Peter's Square. Leo said he hoped negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv would bring a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine and offered prayers for the people of Gaza who were "reduced to hunger" by conflict. During their meeting on Monday local time, Mr Albanese gifted the new pope a framed Indigenous artwork by artist Amanda Westley, who is part of the Ngarrindjeri clan in South Australia. The prime minister also issued a formal letter of invitation to Pope Leo XIV to attend the International Eucharistic Congress, which Sydney will host in 2028. The congress is typically held every four years, and is expected to draw thousands of Catholics from around the world to Australia. Benedict XVI was the last pope to visit Australia, for World Youth Day in 2008. The prime minister had earlier met briefly with Pope Leo XIV on Sunday after the mass and had a "very warm" discussion before their longer meeting on Monday afternoon. Mr Albanese said that during that brief discussion, the pope had "expressed his affection for Australia". He said he had told Leo that Australia's 5 million Catholics "would be watching and wishing him well". The prime minister also reflected briefly on his own personal Catholic faith and history, saying his late mother would have been delighted to see him attend the Papal Inauguration mass as prime minister. "I spoke to him about my mother [who] would be I'm sure looking down from heaven with the biggest smile she's ever had, the fact that her son was at the inaugural mass of a pope in the Vatican, was really quite extraordinary" he said. "So, for me, it was a very personal moment as well, and it was a personal discussion." The prime minister has now left Rome and will stop off in Singapore for a lightning-quick meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong before returning home.
