Growing up with Lambanana and slavery

I recently returned from a trip to Liverpool in the U.K. where I was a guest of the University. It was part of a longer trip that included time spent with colleagues in Milton Keynes, London and Oxford.

I had not been to Liverpool previously and like most of us knew few things about the city: it is the home of the Beatles; famous Liverpool Football Club and a Scouser accent is almost impossible to understand. On the bleaker side, I also know it as a city that has a troubled past: the Toxteth race riots in 1981, the Hillsborough 1989 football tragedy when 96 fans died, and alcohol problems that have affected sections of the population.

Despite this history (and the weather) it is a city that pleasantly surprises. While there is much I loved about the city, particularly the colleagues who where so welcoming, it was the history of Liverpool and the way it is being acknowledged that gives us much to ponder.

An important symbol of Liverpool has become the Lambanana: a statue that is a cross between a lamb and a banana designed by Manhattan-based Japanese artist Taro Chiezo. For those who have not seen this statue, it is strangely compelling, cute and kitsch all at the same time.

It represents two important commodities of Liverpool’s history: lambs and bananas. Both these commodities where vitally important in Liverpool becoming a wealthy city as its now famous docks became an important access point to and from the emerging power to the so-called New World.

In 2008, as part of Liverpool's appointment as European Capital of Culture, 125 individually designed miniature replicas of the original Lambanana were created and placed throughout Liverpool. These where sponsored by various local businesses and community groups.

A third important commodity that was important for the emergence of Liverpool as an economically powerful port was ‘human cargo’ or slavery.

In 1699 Liverpool was granted status as an independent parish and in that same year, Liverpool’s first slave ship set sail for Africa, returning in 1700 with a commodity of 220 Africans.

This was the beginning of a thriving time for Liverpool: in 1715 the first wet dock in Britain was completed: being the first commercial enclosed wet dock in the world and was constructed with a capacity to build 100 ships. By the end of the century, it is estimate that 40 per cent of the international slave trade was accounted for by ships that left the docks at Liverpool.

The massive profits from the slave trade turned Liverpool into one of Britain's significant cities. According to the history of Liverpool compiled by historian John Belchem, at its peak ships from the city carried over 45,000 slaves from Africa. Liverpool became a financial powerhouse that was only eclipsed by London.

While this aspect of its history is not mirrored in the Lambanana, it is well documented in Liverpool’s ‘International Slavery Museum’.

The museum is situated at Albert Docks and, like all public galleries and museums in the United Kingdom, it is free entry. The museum was opened in August 2007 and looks at both the historical and present-day dimensions of slavery, as well as the contemporary impacts of the trade in both the United Kingdom and throughout the world.

And it is this second part that makes this museum so important: there is a need for us to understand that while the slave trade as it existed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century ceased to exist, its impacts and effects are still being felt today. As David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool, stated at one of the celebrations to mark the opening of the museum:

“Our aim is to address ignorance and misunderstanding by looking at the deep and permanent impact of slavery and the slave trade on Africa, South America, the USA, the Caribbean and Western Europe. Thus we will increase our understanding of the world around us."

This is done very carefully and respectfully by the Museum, for it also celebrates human resilience and the work of many who have worked towards reconciliation.

This is not a pretty part of British history, but it happened, and just because some may not like remembering it, it should neither be ignored nor forgotten. Rather, the Museum operators hope that we al learn from the mistakes of the past and work to overcome their contemporary consequences.

Returning to Australia a week after visiting the Museum I have wondered if we, as Australians, are mature enough to establish a similar monument to the source of our wealth? To acknowledge that the sheep’s back we rode for generations and the contemporary mining wealth that has kept the recession at a distance is related to the forced displacement of a complex network of Aboriginal nations that had lived on this continent for tens of thousands of years.

Likewise, the essential enslavement of Aboriginal workers that resulted from stolen wages from the 1700s until as recently as the 1970s also led to wealth creation for many that has never been appropriately reconciled

The protests on Australia Day that targeted the opposition leader where ignited by Tony Abbott’s position that it was time for those at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy to ‘move on’.

Rather than moving on, it is a history that we should be mature enough to acknowledge. Like the history of slavery, it isn’t pretty, but is it what happened, and it is one that we should learn from.