بدون عدالة بدون سلام
لا عداله لا سلام
بلا عداله بلا سلام
عداله ثم سلام
‘Harbingers of peace’ is the theme for Laneway Print Studio and POD Gallery 2026 South Australia Living Artist Festival (SALA) group exhibition. Reading the show’s briefing and understanding the political purpose of the work rang the chant ‘no justice, no peace’ in my head. I knew that peace as an apolitical concept does not align with my values as a person or an artist, so this work had to convey the concept of delivering justice for the oppressed before expecting peace.
While exploring this idea, I was having conversations with other studio artists, family, friends, and folks online around what justice means to us and how I’m exploring this political concept through the lens of the human right to violent resistance. Witnessing an active genocide through our social media platforms has fundamentally reshaped our humanity and our interaction with politics. The book selection for this month is directly tied to this concept that may seem too confronting, foreign, or ‘too radical’. Yet, revolutionaries, academics and community leaders have known this to be the truth for centuries. We must speak the language of the oppressors, knowing we’ll never match their levels of violence, resources or ability to enforce systemic injustice. Our current example of this concept is happening in Palestine, where an oppressive apartheid regime is utilising genocidal tactics against an Indigenous population. The Palestinians are utilising their human right to resist against the onslaught by upcycling metal scraps from the bombs dropped on them by Israel and its allies in the Global North.
We have witnessed too much bloodshed, we’re too aware of the political class and their complicity to still live in the delusional myth of a peaceful world without acknowledging the atrocities committed by our governments using our tax dollars. Every community and individual fighting for the eventual hope of experiencing true peace must also be aware of the steps needed to reach an equitable outcome for those who have suffered and been oppressed under these man-made systems and institutions. We’re yet to acknowledge the genocide of Indigenous communities globally, especially in Australia where I work and live. Our detachment from our crimes and history fosters generational distrust and hopelessness in the possibility of receiving just steps towards reparations. To achieve peace, a world where oppression is no longer a daily reality for millions of people, where wealth gaps are no longer informed by the location of our birthplace or the passport we hold, a world where our natural resources are not being traded for human lives, profiting CEO’s and the 1% class. Before achieving this reality, we must first understand and dismantle the systems that allow for children to die from starvation, Indigenous mothers dying in hospitals during childbirth, and political disenfranchisement to be socially unfathomable. The work I chose to create for this year’s group exhibition is a 3-part series of posters, decorated with Persian and Kurdish rug motifs, and Arabic calligraphy to relay the message of justice then peace.
“Peace is a white man’s word, liberation is ours”
-
Kwame Ture
Further readings:
‘What Does “No Justice, No Peace” Really Mean?’ by Steven Mazie
https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/what-does-no-justice-no-peace-really-mean/