Going Back To The Nation

1993 was deemed ‘The Year of the Indigenous Person’ and without hesitation I started to research the Indigenous cultures of Australia-photograph cultural evidence in whatever medium it was displayed or celebrated and generate my own personal archive of material in order to make a ‘picture novel’ of these findings.

I worked on the Indigenous Documentary ‘Quest for Country’ (see seperate Journal Entry) and while in the Outback I was forever looking for ‘elements’ that could later be incorporated into a more complex visual language. The bars over the cracked earth in this image being an example.

This page is from ‘Voice of the First Day’ by Robert Lawlor and a major influence personally.

‘Bioptim’ 1993

1993

‘Kata Juta’ 1993

Redfern Wall 1993

Redfern Wall 1993

The projection in the next picture is from this 1950’s garage door

Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers

From the red dust north of Dalmore Downs

Sharman's tents roll into town

Twelve will face the auctioneer

Sharman's Boxers stand their ground

Their days are darker than your nights

But they won't be the first to fall

Children broken from their dreams

But they won't be the first to fall

Fighting in the spotlight

Eye's turn blacker than their skin

For Jimmy Sharman's boxers

It's no better if you win

Standing in the darkness

Lined up waiting for the bell

The days are wasted drinking

At the first and last hotel

Why are we fighting for this?

Why are you paying for this?

You pay to see me fall like shrapnel

To the floor

What is the reason for this?

There is a reason for this?

What is the reason they keep coming back for more?

The blows now bring him to his knees

But still the crowd calls out for more

The drums are burning in his ears

The man keeps counting out the score

‘Midnight Oil’

Redfern 1993

Quest For Country

Moree

1993 was ‘The Year of the Indigenous Person’ internationally and it was an easy decision to get involved working with the Indigenous people of Australia. I knew little of these cultures and felt compelled to change. There were a select few avenues to explore and one was S.B.S. television (Special Broadcasting Service). I wrote to a documentary film production company working within S.B.S. called ‘Black Fella Films’ explaining my desire to work with traditional people and offer my service.

I received a reply and worked on a documentary ‘Quest For Country’ directed by the late Indigenous Artist Michael Riley. We were to travel slowly across Central New South Wales shooting landscapes depicting the destruction farming has on the natural environment.

Michael Riley

Lightning Ridge

The Blue Mountains

While we were taking time sequence landscapes at the Blue mountains I found this on the ground. An old matchbox with the 1908 Coat of Arms for the City of Sydney. It features images of the First Fleet used by the British government in 1788 to transport its first convicts to the penal colony of New South Wales. An Aboriginal man and a British sailor stand on equal footing, but do the words of the motto, "I take, but I surrender", apply to both, or just the white man? And what exactly does this mean?

Just Outside Dubbo - Night Sky

Michael interviews two residents of the former Aboriginal Reserve in Dubbo

The Spirit of Australia

Lithgow

Unfortunately I have no captions for these following portraits taken in Moree during our filming schedule. My diary with this information was stolen many years ago.

Michael was a deeply troubled man. He carried pain - the pain of his people. He and I had many late night conversations during our time together. I have carried these discussions as the foundations for my objectives.