Street Art In Newtown, NSW, Australia

This picture has been taken in the suburb of “Newtown” in Sydney, on King Street avenue in Australia. I chose this one because I leaved there for several months and this street art mural is very popular in this city, that’s why it interests me.

In Australia, there’s not only one culture but many other one's and all the people seem living in a good relationship but in fact this country had a shadowy story.

Differently, Newtown is a very attractive and popular district in Sydney a lot of people want to see it.

Moreover, the mix between the sentence “I have a dream”, the face and the three colors make it a sign of global culture.

The face represents the face of African-American activist Martin Luther King.

Scripted in Gothic lettering “I have a dream” is a sentence pronounced by him in the 60’s.

The earth planet will show us the world like it can offer a lot of possibilities.

There’s also an Aboriginal flag beneath the images, its bright red and yellow colours obviously causing the mural’s message to become personally significant for the Australian community as the traditional population isn’t English but Aboriginal. English people colonised the country and make a slaughter to the population.

To me, all of those make a sign of multiculturality, globalisation and represent of course the global culture.

One must acknowledge the historical forces of progress, colonialism, human rights and liberalism, multiculturalism and protest, all the ideas derived from modern and postmodern thought, and from which the mural grew up, and all ideas that still impact post-colonial in Sydney for sure.

Europeans disregarding and challenging indigenous Australian culture back in the day resulted in the aboriginal people experiencing intense inequality, while the blacks in America evident in the Newtown mural were similarly being treated poorly by whites.

I think this street art mural is a cultural appropriation because when we think to the historical facts, Australian (European coloniser) are taking elements of the culture but they haven’t the same cultural significance.

To finish, it can maybe add to our class discussion a different way to understand the global culture, is not only based on good vibes and fantasy but also with historical aspects. Sometimes we can see some sign of global culture but there’s always a negative or positive signification on it.