Vernon Ah Kee 'Dark + Disturbing' T-shirts

The T-shirt is black with the words "aboriginal all the time" in white text on the front. Vernon Ah Kee explains "When we were kids, my dad used to say you had to be “Aboriginal all the time”. What he meant was, he’d worked with people who were performing Aboriginality while they were at work, and then forget they were Aboriginal when worked stopped. He said “if you work for Aboriginal people you should be Aboriginal all the time”." (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021).

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "australia drive it like you stole it" in white text on the front.  With this message Vernon Ah Kee “critiques Australian claims to the Australian continent.” (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021).

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "because racism" in white text on the front.  “In a country like Australia, everyone is racist because everything relates to race. As long as there is an oppressed peoples, particularly its native people, then absolutely everything is ‘because racism‘.” (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021).

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "i see deadly people" in white text on the front. “Deadly is a popular term amongst Aboriginal people. It can mean great, good, fast, strong, knowledgeable”. (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021).

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "does not assimilate into other cultures very well" in white text on the front.  Vernon Ah Kee explains "When Aboriginal people were entrenched in mission and reserves, the local protector or authority figure would be required to write reports on individuals and/or groups, who were not conforming or not performing to expected behaviours. This design is typical of the notations and comments in reports, that were used to negatively describe individuals who were seen as troublesome." (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021).

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "australia drop it like its hot" in white text on the front.  With this message "Vernon critiques Australian claims to the Australian continent" (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021). The text 'pN2014' is on the right sleeve.

The shirt was manufactured by Gildan.

The T-shirt is black with the words "WHITE AUSTRALIA BLACK HISTORY" in white text on the front.  This version of the well-known phrase “white Australia black history” was created by Vernon Ah Kee in 2015. The design is a series of visual puns that interrogates the reality that the truth of Australian history that is not just strongly resisted but more so it is greatly denied. (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021)

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "demoncrazy" in white text on the front.  Vernon Ah Kee explains "Sometime around 2015, we were having a proppaNOW meeting. We were just sitting around and we must have been talking about what our next show could be themed around and a couple of us Googled the word democracy. On my phone as well as Meg’s, the words demon crazy came up. It stuck in my mind and I created the shirt because it’s just an appropriate phrase when we think about the way in which democracy does not serve the interests of Aboriginal people.”  (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021)

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.

The T-shirt is black with the words "still here" in red on the front.  ""Still here" was originally created in response to continued questions about Aboriginal sovereignty. Despite their terra nullius, their attempts to assimilate, their racism, Aboriginal people are still here" (Dark + Disturbing website, viewed 14 October 2021)

The shirt was manufactured by JB's Wear.