Sisters in Solidarity against Colonialism

Photographs taken by Anthropologist experiencing first contact with indigenous Australians are the only visual record easily referenced modern society has of this time. I’m a visual person and I absorb information through visual images. I found a photograph in a museum publication, lots of photographs, and the vast majority showed an image that told me two things very clearly. One , that the person making the photo made little or no connection with the subject and two that the people in the photographs were suffering heavily from inflicted trauma.

As I have enjoyed some very beautiful connections with indigenous people from differing lands, I happy to say Australia is no different. The impelling evidence from these photographs does not illuminate the culture , character, personality , it is a witnessed subjugation of a people. 

So I want to work with these images to try an en soul them with what I feel might have been the underlying, before the invasion. I’m supporting their heads metaphorically with the brolgas (cranes) , I’m referencing water as the cleanser, the freedom of the cultural connection to place and people.