Empire – May the force take it from you!

Throughout history, the British Empire encouraged the migration of“free settlers” to Australia. These settlers arrived with government support – free land, tools, rations and even convict labour.

What the colonial record rarely acknowledges is this – the land they received for “free” was never free. It was taken – seized, allocated, surveyed and renamed, all without consent from the First Nations people
who had lived on it for tens of thousands of years.

Behind the mask, the man stands as both witness and critique. We are asked to reconsider who benefited,
who paid the cost and whose history has been mythologised in the shadows of empire. Settlement is seen for what it really was – invasion with paperwork.