Here’s Mickey!

I want to start by acknowledging and paying my respects to the elders past, present and emerging of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation whose ancestors have been the traditional custodians, for over 60,000 years, of the country on which I am living today.

Yesterday marked the beginning of National Reconciliation Week which was initiated in 1996 by Reconciliation Australia to celebrate Indigenous history and culture in Australia. Reconciliation Week is held between 27 May and 3 June each year – the first date marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum in Australia and the latter marks the anniversary of the High Court of Australia Judgement on the Mabo v Queensland case of 1992.

During National Reconciliation Week, the National Gallery of Victoria will feature a number of virtual programs – including a discussion with several local Indigenous art curators – on the process of working with diverse Indigenous artists and communities. This event will take place on Friday 29 May from 2pm-3pm and more information can be found at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program/curating-indigenous-art/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tony%27semail-May24&utm_content=version_A&promo=11799

Today’s post will reflect on a work by the artist, Destiny Deacon, whose exhibition ‘DESTINY’ will open when the NGV resumes its operations. Deacon is a Kuku and Erub/Mer woman and a self-described ‘old-fashioned political artist’ who has had a long career presenting humorous but challenging images on contemporary Australian life. One of her most recognizable photographic images is ‘Where’s Mickey?’ from 2002.

According to ‘Behind the Name’ website, ‘Mickey’ is considered a good name. It suggests someone who is masculine, informal, wholesome, youthful, straightforward and, above all, comedic. The most famous ‘Mickey’ is, without doubt, ‘Mickey Mouse’, the creation of Walt Disney back in 1928. Originally called ‘Mortimer’, this name failed to capture the essence that Disney was seeking in his down-to-earth, good-guy, everyman  character – the recognized attributes of a ‘Mickey’.

Mickey Mouse first appeared on Australian television back in 1957, shortly after television was introduced in 1956 so that the Melbourne Olympics could be viewed locally. He was seen in two incarnations – first as a character in the weekly television versions of ‘Walt Disney’s Disneyland’ which were screened from 1957 to 1969. As one of the main characters in Disney’s ‘Fantasyland’ – ‘the happiest kingdom of them all’ – he was seen regularly on Sunday nights as Victorian families tuned in to HSV7 at 6.30pm, after the news and before ‘Father Knows Best’.  What better way to end the weekend, contemplate the week to come and learn about family, social and citizenship values.

Mickey also appeared on television as part of the ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ which began airing in Australia in 1958. This popular television show was hosted by Mickey with talented and wholesome American youngsters performing comedy and musical acts in front of a studio audience. By the time the show reached Australia, it had ceased filming in America (it was produced there from 1955 to 1958), but it was so popular that the ‘Mouseketeers’ made their first visit to Melbourne in 1959. During their time downunder, the Mouseketeers were featured in promotional material for ‘The State Savings Bank of Victoria’ including participating in the bank’s float in the Moomba Parade which was in the shape of the bank’s newly released money box. It is estimated that around half a million people saw the Mickey Mouse Club aboard the float which was escorted by local school children and then went on tour around the state.

Mickey’s love interest, Minnie Mouse, joined him in his adventures in 1928. Minnie was designed as a version of the 1920s ‘flapper’ wearing a short dress (which revealed her distinctively patched knickers), black stockings and oversized shoes. Minnie’s personality is cute, playful and flirtatious and she is frequently cast in the role of an entertainer. However, Minnie is often a ‘damsel in distress’ needing Mickey to come to her rescue.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and their friends, were an important reference point for people born in the mid to late 1950s. Destiny Deacon was born in 1957 and acknowledges the influence they played in her thoughts and fantasies.  While Deacon is from the Kuku and Erub/Mer peoples of the Torres Strait Islands she has lived in Melbourne for most of her life. In an interview as part of ‘Going Strait’ commissioned by the Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland Art Gallery in 2012, Deacon spoke of her childhood saying: “we grew up in suburban Melbourne neighbourhoods where no one else looked like us and the culture set us apart. I remember as a child, being spat on, having rocks thrown at me. Racism. We preferred to watch Mickey Mouse or play outside with friends”.

Deacon’s artwork deals with both historical issues and the contemporary experiences of Aboriginal people. Her photography, videos and installations are informed by personal experience and the readily accessible mass media. ‘Where’s Mickey’, one of Deacon’s most memorable and iconic photographs, clearly references Disney’s Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend, Minnie.

‘Where’s Mickey’ is a real-life studio polaroid photograph which has been scanned and ink-jet printed of Destiny’s friend, Luke Captain, a Torres Strait Island man, portrayed as Minnie Mouse. Resplendent in a flouncy blue-grey short skirt, torn white pantaloons, a shimmering tight sleeveless gold top, fluffy black footwear with yellow bows, white gloves, a 1950s-style hat bedecked with a yellow flower and large mouse ears, a smiling Captain cheekily ‘strikes a pose’ for the camera. The setting is a simple red loosely-hung textile backdrop and a somewhat garish red, yellow and black version of a middle Eastern carpet on the floor. Disconcertingly, a black lower leg (perhaps a shadow) can be seen at the bottom left side of the picture which seems to nudge or perhaps start to push ‘Minnie’ away.

The image is initially comical, non-threatening and inviting but with further looking also increasingly disquieting. Who is this person dressed up? It seems to be a male, so why is he wearing female attire? Is this a game of childish dress-ups?  Has he chosen to present himself like this? Or is it someone else’s idea of a joke? Why the reference to a Disney character? What does the gesture mean? And how does the title ‘Where’s Mickey?’ explain what is going on?

Deacon does not discuss her images but leaves them open to interpretation by the viewer. But this, and the other tongue-in-cheek parodies by Deacon, form the basis of her underlying challenge to the identity, race and gender stereotypes that Aboriginal people face daily. Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and their acolytes the Mouseketeers, are the archetypal images of white American consumer culture who live in the ‘happiest kingdom of them all’ as they have all the socially, culturally and economically desirable attributes of success. If these are requirements for success, then what are the options for black disadvantaged and marginalized individuals? While Deacon was watching Disney to avoid confrontational racism in her childhood streets, she was ‘soaking up’ a more insidious subliminal form of televised racism that was confirming this racism.

By parodying the ‘all-white’ Mouseketeers and presenting a non-white ‘black version’, Deacon gives a ‘presence’ to what is missing in the idealised and sanitised version of what 1950s children were ‘meant to be’. Further to this, ‘Captain’s Minnie’ is both playful, a little tawdry and not taking the role particularly seriously which mocks the earnestness and certainty of 1950s American identity. By presenting Captain as rather ‘mickey mouse’ (trivial, inconsequential) Deacon is, in effect, ‘taking the mickey out of’ the cultural stereotypes propagated by Disney media.

The early Mouseketeers were broadcast at a time that pre-dated the many changes that would eventuate from the civil rights movements of the 1960s. And Deacon was watching these programs before the National Referendum of 1967 gave Aboriginal people the same legal rights as other Australians. At the time, being black meant either victimisation or non-existence.

Using a male dressed as a female, and an adult playing a child’s game, Deacon also encourages an examination of the way western culture constructs gender and race. Typically women and children are seen as less threatening than adult men. ‘Acceptable depictions’ of African Americans were often presented in this demasculinised and infantilised way – as subservient, simple and comical – a process known as minstrelisation. In this way Deacon is presenting ‘Captain’s Minnie’ as the non-challenging black person – someone who won’t threaten us – until we recognise the power of the performance. What may look like a cheeky childish female is, in actuality, a powerful adult male if unleashed.

American animation (including Disney) had its origins in, and developed many of its conventions from, the vaudeville stage. Early animators looked to the tradition of blackface minstrelsy to create their characters and plots. Nicholas Sammond in ‘Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation’ describes how cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse play out social, cultural, political and racial anxieties using laughter and sentimentality to naturalise virulent racial formations.

The palette that Deacon has used for ‘Where’s Mickey?’ is perhaps also a sly reference to Indigenous Australia. With the strong red background, the striking yellow centre and the emphasis on black – is this an allusion to the colours of the Aboriginal flag?

And, finally, the title ‘Where’s Mickey?’. One explanation might reference the 1987 children’s puzzle book, ‘Where’s Wally?’, designed by English illustrator Martin Handford in which readers are challenged to find a character named Wally hidden in the group. With Aboriginal people making up less than 4% of the Australian population, their presence and needs can be easily overlooked and ignored.  Alternatively, Minnie was often a damsel in distress looking to be rescued by Mickey. By posing the question is Deacon suggesting Aboriginal people need a ‘Mickey’ to save them as they wait helplessly and coquettishly? Or is she suggesting, through her differently gendered Minnie, that Mickey might already be present within and that when First Nations people acknowledge their abilities and potentials they can become agents of their own destiny?

Destiny Deacon creates images that are playful, multilayered, political, and challenging, She often describes them as having a ‘laugh and a tear’ at the same time. The laugh engages us and the tear makes us think. In ‘Where’s Mickey?‘ Deacon utilises dress-up and masquerade to parody the stereotypically wholesome Disney character as well as co-opt it into an explicit representation of cultural identity. Made 18 years ago, it is a relevant, powerful and incisive reminder of the journey that we are still on today to achieve Reconciliation.