'Going, Going, Gone' emulates the effects of assimilation on Australia's Indigenous peoples, manifested in the shifting colours from black to white as the black pigment dies out. The collapse of the sculptural heads represent the slow but rapid collapse of Aboriginal culture. The assimilation approach was outlined at the Initial Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities in 1937, which states: "Assimilation policies proposed that 'full blood' Indigenous people should be allowed to 'die out' through a process of natural elimination, while 'half-castes' were encouraged to assimilate into the white community."