Picturing: Aboriginal social and s o l i ~ i c a l photography .

Gary Lee
Aboriginal Australians have been the subject of the camera's
inscrutable gaze since the mid1800s, as early specimens for
colonial anthropometric photographs and later as ethnic
curiosities in staged photo-postcards. These latter images in
particular were widely distributed in Australia and overseas from
the 1890s to the 19OOs. By the turn of the century in Australia
firms were established which specifically served to supply
museums with Aboriginal ethnographic 'curios'. Similar
companies overseas supplied extensively illustrated catalogues
and photographs which were used largely for the marketing of
Aboriginal material culture to a world market. The photographs,
usually depicting posed Aborigines often surrounded with a
mish-mash of artefacts, were widely reproduced and distributed
along with the 'curios'. Aboriginal people had no say in the
making of these photographs. Permission was not needed by
Euro-Australians to force or coerce people to 'pose' and it was to
be a very long time before they got to be on the other side of the
camera.
Photographs taken by early British anthropologists in Australia
such as those made on the Cambridge Expedition to the Torres
Straits in 1898-9 by A C Haddon and by Baldwin Spencer in
Central Australia after the turn of the century provide a unique
visual legacy. It is the photography of the anthropologist Donald
Thornson which I believe to be the most notable. Thomson had a
personal interest in photography which he pursued during his
anthropology undergraduate years at Sydney University and
after graduating in 1928 he undertook field work at Cape York in
Queensland. It is his superb photographs of Aboriginal people
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taken on this and on subsequent trips to Amhem Land and
Central Australia which are still highly regarded today (Dixon
and Huxley 1985:14), While many anthropologists have taken
photographs of Aborigines over the years, with the likes of
Haddon and Spencer even using movie cameras, the images
made by Thomson stand out for their sensitivity and aesthetic
beauty - qualities not usually associated with anthropological
picture making/recording.
It is difficult to ascertain when Aboriginal people first took up a
position on the other side of the camera in any sort of fonnal way.
Available records point to Aboriginal people as taking
photographs at least 70 years ago in Australia. In the 1930s
Jimmie Barker, an Aboriginal man from New South Wales, not
only shot but also developed and printed his own photos.! This
would have been a unique first and most certainly a highly
unusual occurrence. Two decades later in Amhem Land,
Winuoidj, a local man took photographs in the 1950s with an
Ensign Full-Vue camera while assisting the photographer Axel
Poignant on one of his field excursions.
l
Aboriginal people are redefining themselves through
photography and using it as an aesthetic and documentary tool to
present their perceptions about Aboriginal communities and their
ties to land. In this paper I will look at Aboriginal social and
political art, which as has been made with the camera by artists,
with an emphasis on early photographers who in many senses
paved the way for those who have followed. Most of these early
practitioners are established within the wider Australian art
sphere and some of their images have attained iconic status, not
least for Aboriginal people.
Professional Aboriginal photography can be said to have begun
in the 1960s with Mervyn Bishop in Sydney when he was
employed by Fairfax newspapers in 1963 as a press photographer,
a position he stayed in for over twenty years. By this time there
were no doubt Aboriginal families and individuals who owned
cameras and there must be a treasure trove of Aboriginal
photographs as testimony to their interest in this medium,
Although Jimmie Barker and Winuoidj are remarkable examples
of early Aboriginal involvement - and there could have been
others except that little data is available, it is through Bishop that
the concept of Aborigine-as-photographer really came into its
own. This was highlighted further when in 1972 he was awarded
the Press Photographer of the Year with a striking photo titled A
Life and Death Dash, of a nun rushing down a street with an
Aboriginal child, suspected of swallowing an overdose of pills, in
her arms.
During his long tenure at the Fairfax Press Bishop was
seconded to the newly formed Department of Aboriginal Affairs
(DAA) in Canberra as press photographer. From 1974-1979
during his time at DAA he covered many Significant Aboriginal
events and gatherings and none more so than the Wattie Creek
handover of land in the Northern Territory in 1975. Bishop's
photograph of the-then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pouring
red earth back into the hand of senior Gurindji elder Vincent
Lingiari has been widely reproduced both by oAA and others.
This image encapsulates the land rights victory hard won by the
Gurindji people and the official acknowledgment of that by the
Federal Labour government of the day. This photo was first
exhibited in 1986 at the NAIOOC exhibition in Sydney thanks to
curator Ace Bourke. In 1991 Bishop was honoured with a
retrospective of his work - In Dreams: Mervyn Bishop: Thirty Years
of Photography 1960-1990, at the Australian Centre for
Photography in Sydney. the Show which was curated by Tracey
Moffatt who also edited the catalogue. For the first time Bishop's
social and political documentary work could be appreciated by a
wider audience all at the one time.
By the 1980s more Aboriginal photographers began to emerge
and garner recognition. Several significant events occurred in this
decade which to facilitated this. After The Tent Embassi was a
photographic display which used historical archival images
coordinated by Marcia Langton in 1981 as part of the Apmira
Land Rights Fundraising Exhibition of that same year at the
Paddington Town Hall in Sydney. The photographs chosen
illustrated Aboriginal struggles for land and self-detennination
while highlighting the negative and positive effects that such
images could have in terms of Aboriginal politics and aspirations
for justice. Another event was the 1982 Commonwealth Games
which were held, in Brisbane amidst wide-spread Aboriginal
protests. Land Rights marches were held with many people being
arrested. Photographs of these marches were included in the
publication After The Tent Embassy which was published in the
following year. In 1986 the work of some of the-then emerging
photographers and artists was shown in the aforementioned
NAlDOC exhibition curated by Ace Bourke. As well as the
Mervyn Bishop image of Vincent Lingiari at Wattie Creek, Tracey
Moffatt's series Some Lads of dancers from the National
Aboriginal and Islander Dance School and Brenda LCroft's
photos about black deaths in custody come to mind. Michael
Riley's sensual portraits of Aboriginal contemporaries were also
shown in this important exhibition.
The Australian Bicentenary celebrations of 1988 saw the largest
gathering of Aboriginal people in Sydney. In what was called the
Big March or the Invasion Day Rally held on January 26th, rather
than 'celebrating' 200 years of white settlement, up to 250,000
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the
country marched through the city in protest.-Alana Harris'
powerful images of this huge protest march were celebrated in
the booklet Australia's too old to celebrate birthdays4, The
Bicentenary year also saw the writer, artist and activist Kevin
Gilbert curate an exhibition titled Inside Black Australia: Aboriginal
photographers exhibition, Treaty 88 which was held in Sydney in
1989 at the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. Among the
Aboriginal artists who exhibited were Alana Hams, Ellen Jose,
Tracey French and Wayne Barker. Gilbert was the driving force
and organiser behind the Treaty '88 Campaign which did much
not only to raise funds but to also bring further attention to the
many political events, rallies and meetings in the lead-up to the
Bicentenary itself.
Another important photographic event in this decade was the
publication of After 200 Years: Photographic essays of Aboriginal and
Islander Australia today,; Aboriginal photographers Alana Harris,
Peter McKenzie, Kathy Fisher and Ricky Maynard were among
the contributors to this volume. Another interesting publication
from this time which induded photographs taken by Aboriginal
people was the book KlIndat laru Mob: An exhibition of photographs
by lOll Rhodes and the KUlldat Jam community 1986-1989." Some of
these exuberant images were taken by community members
themselves, many of whom had never used a camera before.
In the 1980s photography started to become an important tool
for Aboriginal people through which they could make their own
interpretations of their social and political lives. The 1988
Bicentenary certainly impacted on this fact and in bringing to the
attention of a wider public the talents of a number of Aboriginal
artists. Alana Harris' preViously mentioned 1988 photographs of
the Invasion Day Rally is one case in point. Harris, who is now
the Senior Photographer at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra, is sometimes
underestimated, I feel possibly because her subject matter is not
always 'Aboriginal'. At the age of nineteen Harris was invited to
participate in the After 200 Years project in which she documented
the people and community of Leeton. Her black and white
landscape studies have a sensuous vitality (which one can also
see in her portraiture work) as in her images Bush Renewal or Rock
and Reed both from 1991. Two years before in 1989 Harris
travelled throughout North Queensland on assignment for the
Queensland Art Gallery's collaborative exhibition Balance 1990 7
to photograph Aboriginal murals on public buildings in
communities such as Palm Island, Cairns and Townsville. In that
same year she participated in Narragunnawali, an exhibition by
Aboriginal people living in Canberra and the surrounding region,
where she felt she gained status as an artist as a result of the
exhibition and that it also meant "an increased economic return
from her Her black and white portrait of Iris
Clayton from this show was one of the standouts for this author.
Peter McKenzie is another photographer who doesn't get as
much attention as he probably should. His documentation of his
family, and his well-known images of the La Perouse community
where he grew up spring, to mind. McKenzie was one of the
Aboriginal photographers who contributed to the After 200 Years
project. One of his images included Gordie, Troy and Bruce 'LArpa'
Stewart at Redfern Oval after Troy Jlad kicked the winning goal, 1987.
Another of McKenzie's series, of the La Perouse football team
t >
Alana Harris A"ti-bice"tc,,"inl March, January 26th 1988, Sydney, NSW,
colour photograph, image courtesy of the artist
captures their triumph and joy at winning the grand final,
beautifully presented in one photograph in particular from this
series titled John Amatto, Darren Champion, Chris Lyons: Grand
Final Winners (LA PerOl/se United), 1991." In 1989 McKenzie
accompanied the Australian participants to Paris for the
Magiciens de la Terre exhibition as the Aboriginal curator. There he
photographed the Yuendumu artists creating a magnificent
ground painting installation.
to
McKenzie continues to document
the social and political realities of not just the La Perouse but the
wider Aboriginal community, lectures, curates and works <IS a
freelance photographer.
Ricky Maynard was born in Tasmania and W<lS already
interested in photography at the age of sixteen when he moved to
Melbourne to play football. In his twenties he completed three
years of training at the-then Australian Institute of Aboriginal
48
1
Studies
ll
in Canberra which gave him a grounding in all aspects
of photography. As one of the participating Aboriginal
photographers in the After 200 Years project he returned to
Tasmania to document the community he grew up in
12

Maynard's series of the mutton-birding activities of the

Aboriginal people there, titled the Moonbird People, provide a
unique perspective into the traditions and the community which
keep it very much alive. His haunting images of the windswept
coastal landscape evoke the beauty and mood of this unique part
of Australia. His portraits of his people working within that
environment communicate something of the survival not only of
their traditions but, just as importantly, of themselves as well. His
photographs of ElIiot Maynard at work in and outside the
mutton-birding shed as he prepares to start work are among his
favourite photos.'-l Titled simply Elliot Maynard the young boy's
demeanour and steady gaze in these images reflects his obvious
confidence with the photographer. From 1990-91 Maynard was
awarded an Aboriginal Overseas Study Award and travelled to
New York to study at the prestigious International Centre of
Photography. In 1993 he documented Aboriginal inmates of
South Australian prisons in a series titled No More Than What You
See which are both powerful and effective in challenging
conventional photographic methodology.14 Maynard continues to
bring attention to Aboriginal social and political injustices
through his unique documentary photography.
Michael Riley and Brenda LCroft are two photographers and
artists who deserve particular mention in the early scheme of
things. Riley and Croft, along with Tracey Moffatt and Fiona
Foley, were among the founding members of Boomalli Aboriginal
Artists Co-operative in 1987 in Riley exhibited in the
1986 NAIDOC exhibition a striking series of black and white
portraits of his Aboriginal contemporaries. His photographs of
the Moree community and people (1990-91) and his political
Sacrifice (1992) series are but a few of his many standout
photographic and film Like Riley, fellow Boomalli
founding member Brenda L Croft has been photographing and
exhibiting both nationally and internationally since the early
1980s. Her documentation of the Redfern community in Sydney
1985, her recording of the Invasion Day Rally in 1988, and the
Aboriginal participants at the Festival Of Pacific Arts in Townsville
of the same year are but part of her early impressive oeuvre. Her
1994 series Strange Fruit of beautiful colour portraits of Aboriginal
female contemporaries bely a political intent
l7
and her poignant
and personal 1998 series AIt(a)red Angels allows us to appreciate
her Aboriginal experience and artistic vision. Croft, along with
Michael Riley, continues to challenge stereotypes by re-
representing Aboriginal social and political life with
photography.
Fiona Foley is an artist who has used photography to shift
boundaries as in her sepia-toned 1994 Native Blood. Here Foley
has photographed herself posed in the manner of colonial
postcards, topless in beads and a grass skirt wearing platform
shoes in red, yellow and black - the colours of the Aboriginal flag.
She usurps the racialist colonial picture postcard by posing
herself in the semi-erotic ways so commonly enforced on
Indigenous women in these Foley was another founding
member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and has
been painting and exhibiting since the early eighties. Her
photographic series Native Blood refigures the Aboriginal woman
and reclaims her from the ethnographic portmit genre of 'native
woman'. Tracey Moffatt is another BoomaUi founding member
who has been exhibiting her photographs since the early eighties.
Moffatt's OCII1:'rc also includes films such as Nice Coloured Girls
(1987) ,md Nigllt Cries: A Rural TmSl'dy (1989) which was
previewed at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Moffatt's
photographic body of work also de,lls with issues of gender, race,
Aboriginal politics, history and sexual politics. She has achieved
an international rcputMion garnering many <.1wards world-wide
for her work.
In the 1990s photographic artists such as Destiny Deacon, Leah
KingSmith, Rea, Brook Andrew and Darren Siwes have
continued to interpret contempor<.1ry Aboriginal life in new and
challenging ways. While Aborigines were once 'captives' of the
colonial lens they are now at the forefront in rerepresenting
themselves and their communities through photography. Soon
after this new invention (in 1839) arrived in colonial Australia in
the mid 18005, Aboriginal people were around and in front of the
camera. It was only once they got behind the lens that we have
started to see the vitality and depth of Aboriginal photographic
interpretations and representations of Aboriginal social and
political lives.
Gary Lee is a Larrakia anthropologist, arts writer and
independent curator who is currently completing his PhD on
Aboriginal Art at the UNSW in Sydney.
1 Janet Mathews Tfle TWI) Worlds of Jimmie Barker: The LIfe of 1111
Australiall AborigilltlI1900-1972, Australian Institute of Aboriginal
Studies, Canberra 1977, ppl06,143
2 Axel Poignant,' A free-lance in Arnhem Land', Australasinll
Plwta-Rt'pit'w October 1954 pp 594-99
3 Marcia Langton After The Tmt Elllbassy Valadon Publishing,
Svdnev, 1983
4'Aboriginat Studies Press, Canberra 1988
5 Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra 1988 Penny Taylor (ed)
6 Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Studies, Canberra 1991, text bv Penny Tavlor
7 See Michael Eather, 'Balance Stories' Attlillk VoI10 Nos 1&2
Autumn/Winter 1990 pp 7374
8 rn Sylviil Kleinert, NarmSllIIllIlil'a/i ill Cllllban! ibid. p97
'} Reproduced in Art al1d AI/stmlid Vol31 No 1 Spring 1993, 66
10 Peter McKenzie 'From Yuendumu to Paris' Art/i/lk VolIa Nos
1& 2 Autumn/Winter 1990 p 79
11 The Austr<1lian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, established in
1904, ch<lIlged its mme to the more inclusive Austr<1lian Institute
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in 1989
12 Ricky M<1ynard The Cmft of Doclllllt'lItnry PlwfogrJlpflY in Sandra
Phillips (ed) RacislII, RCpreSl'lItatiO/I Il/ld P!wtogmpflY Inner City
Education Centre, Sydney 1994 pp111-116
13 ilJid p12
H For eX<1mples see 'Time ripples in Tasmania' Julie Cough in
Art /lnd AI/stmlia Vol35 No I 1997, P ID, also Ricky Maynard
'Static Image' in HiddeH Pirtllres: AlIllld(lil'lllll!S TOllrillS Film
Festi'1'af Gltaiogue, Australian Film Commission Sydney 1995 p31
15 See p78this issue; <.1lso BrendJ L Croft 'A change is gonn<1
come', Periphery Nos 40-41 Spring 1 9 9 9 ~ S u m m e r 2000 p 53
16 For details of Michaei Riley's photographic and film career see
interviews by Andrew Dewdney (1989) and Sandra Phillips
(1992) in Sandm Phillips (ed) RacislII, Represt'lItatioll t..;" PllOtosmphy
Inner City Education Centre, Sydney 1994 pp 141-150, also Hetti
Perkins 'Michael Riley/Sacrifice' in Abstracts-New AIJorisiJwlitil's
cat,llogue, SWAPP Exeter 1996 pp 30-31, and Howard Morphy
Al'oriSilllll Art Phaidon, Lundun 1998 pp 404&406-7
17 See Perkins ibid 1996 pp 24-25
Ix See Howard Morphy Abarigillal Art Phaidon, London 1998 pp
404-405, and espeCially Diane Losche 'Badtjab Woman-Fiona
Fnley's Native Blood and Native Hybrid' Co/a/lilll to Post Colonial,
exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art at Heide 96 pp 34-35