A ring of tall lotus and columns of ash have likely caught the eye of thousands of pedestrians walking past Brisbane Magistrates Court over the years but many might not realise they represent the massacres of tens of thousands of Aborigines.
A plaque at the site reads that the sculpture was the "first public artwork to tackle this hidden territory on a statewide basis", an acknowledgement of the tens of thousands of Aborigines who died during the Frontier Wars from 1788. However, the meaning of the sculpture was not revealed until after it was made, says its creator, Queensland Indigenous artist Fiona Foley.
Ms Foley was commissioned to build a sculpture at the site in 2001 and had pitched the work as a focus on the extremes of fire and flood experienced across the state.
The sculpture, Witnessing to Silence, consists of a circle of long-stemmed lotus inside a misting device that no longer operates and a grouping of stainless-steel columns with ash inside glass. Both sit within white granite circles among pavestones that list 94 locations across Queensland.
Ms Foley had initially said the sculptures and pavestones were reflections of extreme weather events across the state, however three months after the sculpture was erected, the locations were revealed to be the sites where massacres of Aborigines had occurred.
"I just thought this is such an important site outside of Brisbane's Magistrates Court that I can't afford to waste this opportunity ... I knew the real meaning of the work would be too controversial so I had to cast it in more appealing, somewhat appealing terminology," she said.
"That is only because I had done previous trials (of the topic), and people weren't accepting of the truth, that wasn't just in Brisbane.
"I thought I can't be too truthful about this project because it will never get up."
According to the plaque, "the water and the ash reference the two ways in which bodies were disposed of following massacres – mass burning or dumping in local waterways".
Ms Foley said while a number of people came out in support of the artwork, there were likely many who were not ready to accept it.
"A lot of people came out in support of the work and then people who probably weren't happy with the work remained a bit more silent about it, they would have had an opinion but they didn't express it to me," she said.
"In relation to race politics in this country, whether it is contemporary history or historical, people still find it very jarring and are not ready to accept what really took place.
"I think it is good to have this information in the public domain, talk honestly about the history that unfolded here instead of being silent about it.
"I feel justified in relation to what I did."
Ms Foley hopes the sculpture gives the public a moment of reflection.
"I think there is a reluctance to acknowledge what really took place in this country because if you take that step then you have to go back further and start to acknowledge this land was taken off the Aboriginal people," she said.
"Last year there was a big public debate whether to use the word 'invasion' – you think as a society, Australia had come to terms with the fact this country was invaded but something as simple as that, people find it hard to come to terms with, they still find it contemptuous."