GALLERY 1
SPACE B
EVERYTHING WILL BE K.O.
MATLOK GRIFFITHS
From the early 1900s through to the 1970s, tent boxing was an integral part of the sideshow alley at agricultural shows that toured Australia. These owner-operated enterprises were fundamental to the period’s culture, providing both entertainment and insight into our nation’s racial discourse. According to oral testimony at least half of the fighters that manned the tents were Indigenous Australians, thus these troupes play a significant role in Indigenous history and twentieth century race relations.
In Everything Will be K.O., Griffiths explores the characters that took part in Tent Boxing and how their conflicting memories and contested interpretations mirror the problematic nature of our past.
