Pascoe, Robert (2010) The unbearable lightness of a bag of wind. Historic Environment , 22 (3). pp. 32-37. ISSN 0726-6715

Abstract

‘Thirty-six fools kicking a bag of wind around is not my idea of a Saturday afternoon!’, scoffed one newcomer to Melbourne and its peculiar code of football. But for many Australians their attachment as spectators to a particular sport weighs on them so unbearably as to justify a Milan Kundera novel. Their conversations with both strangers and intimate others are threaded with the shared memories of sporting personalities, episodes and venues. How is this intangible heritage to be recognised and safeguarded? What are the crucial elements involved in assessing claims for cultural significance of sporting heritage? Turning away from the commercialised images of Australian Rules football that dominate the media, artworks offer one valuable source in this process of cultural assessment. Australian Rules football appears in the work of several painters, sculptors and other artists. How do their particular insights help us understand sporting heritage? What are the sacred meanings in this secular ritual?

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