LOCATION: Old Melbourne Gaol, 377 Russell Street, Melbourne
There is no question that life in 19th century Victoria could be fraught and challenging – for all people, but particularly for women, who were greatly outnumbered by men since European colonisation. The Old Melbourne Gaol is Victoria’s oldest surviving penal establishment. Both men and women were imprisoned here and, at times, up to twenty children also stayed here with parents or as prisoners in their own right. Inside, criminals were held alongside petty offenders, the homeless and the mentally ill, in austere and harsh conditions.
Aseel Tayah is a deeply political artist whose work, “One, Two, Three”, uses the Gaol as a locus for heartbreaking memory, and a call to the future. In Aseel’s purposeful, succinct work, we recognise that those who do not understand the past are condemned to repeat it. There is no easy dividing line between “us and them” in this future, only mothers who do not sleep and clouds that rain pain. Tourists may now visit this place for ghost tours and Ned Kelly memorabilia, but the legacy of fear and imprisonment endures.
TRANSCRIPT:
One siege
Two homes
Three little dreams
At my far away home…
souls never felt peace…
hidden secrets …
surrounded hopes
with weapons and chains…
Clouds rain pain
To water fighting trees
Olives sing for freedom
Wanting to be released
At my far away home
Moms love to pray
They Pray to God
and there is so much to say…
Ya allah
Ya allah
Ya allah
One whispering voice
Two crying hearts
Three cuddling babies
The End of day comes…
she never thought it will
One table…
Two worried faces
Three tired looks
sleepy eyes…
and
one occupier..
In Palestine,
mothers never sleep,
Worried about thieves
Who never knock on the door..
No apology for theft
Never questioned
Or even sent to jail..
Just before surrender
Heavy eyelids finally submit
soldiers invade the silence..
Invade the smell of sleeping innocents
the purity of their dreams
Force lullabies to leave
hugging melodies with fear
Loud steps pound the floor
Evil feet that were here before…
One two three…soldiers…
Breaking the peaceful sleep
Ignoring the screaming
of the mournful door…
no permission
no compassion
no excuse…
Five six seven soldiers
cowards attack sanctity of home
as a military operation…
One more act
of inhuman occupation
Showing no mercy
Ignoring her pleas
one breath
two blinks
three…
In my far away home
you always expect
your turn…
during a cuddle
before bed
singing a song of freedom
Or a full moon walk…
In Palestine…
Children warm prison cells
with their small hands
Holding their hopes in one
And their fear on in the other
Closing one eye for sleep
And the other filled with tears
In the occupier’s prison
There is
A Dark cell
A Black wall
red fingerprints
and angry fists
In their prison
There is one of ours
One scared little child
Two bleeding eyes
Three, four, thousands of broken hearts
hundreds of nights…
Away from the far away home
One two three…
One homeland
Two balconies
Three olive trees
Four thousand children laughing in the streets…
…so safe…
so close
To their own home
This work is a part of the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre collaboration, Silence Speaks, for Feminist Journeys, featured as a part of the 2020 Feminist Writers Festival.