Invasion Day - Gadigal, 2018
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people marched on the 26th of January, 2018, from the Block in Redfern, through inner Sydney to the Yabun Festival in Victoria Park, to commemorate and protest the 230th anniversary of the British invasion of the First Nations of what is now known as Australia. The current debate in the mainstream about the meaning of the 26th of January, which has been celebrated as 'Australia Day' since 1994, helped swell the attendance to record numbers.
This year, the date also represents 180 years since the Waterloo Creek/Slaughterhouse Creek massacre where up to 500 Gomeroi people were slaughtered by police and militia in Northern NSW in 1838. The first Day of Mourning was also held 80 years ago on this day.
The Yabun Festival celebrates and acknowledges the survival of Aboriginal peoples through music, dance and discussion. Together, with the marchers, a record 50,000 people attended this year. On the main stage, the audience was entertained by Baraya, Kardajala Kirridarra from the Northern Territory, as well as other musicians, before Yolngu hip hop artist, Baker Boy, wowed the crowd. The day was capped off by a mesmerising performance by Electric Fields.
Serwah
Studio portraits of the multi-talented, extraordinary and stunning Serwah, member of punk-noise-thrash-crossover metal band, Dispossessed, quoted as being "the most uncompromising, unapologetic and important band in Australia".
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Swanson Dock - Twenty Years On (From the Archives)
Twenty years ago, the beginnings of Australia's most significant industrial dispute of recent times began, as the Howard Government and Patrick Corporation sought to break the Maritime Union of Australia.
Part of the campaign against the union involved the 'Dubai Operation'
From Wikipedia:
"One Australian stevedoring company, Fynwest Pty Ltd, sought to recruit former and current Australian Defence Force members to counter the MUA. In particular, from December 1997, Fynwest began a campaign to recruit former and current members of the Special Air Service (SAS), paratroopers from 3RAR, commandos from 4RAR and other military specialists, to become stevedores. Others were recruited from controversial private military and security consulting companies, such as Sandline International and the Control Risks Group. This led to use of terms like 'industrial mercenaries' in political and media circles.
Fynwest planned to send these recruits to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where international standard training could be provided. The newly trained stevedores would then take part in an Australian non-union dock workers training program.
The MUA was "tipped off" about the planned Fynwest operation and took the matter to the media who met the departing Fynwest employees as they boarded a flight to Dubai and questioned their "tourist" status. Intense criticism and the threat of international industrial retaliation forced the Dubai Government to cancel visas for the Fynwest company employees."
Unionists had set up a blockade at Patricks, which lasted months. Ultimately the strike was broken, heralding a new age of industrial relations in Australia.
Below are images taken in 1998 at Melbourne's Swanson Dock, where participating strikers and community members gathered to practice their defence skills against line breakers.
Black and White, Kodak Tri-x film, Colour Kodak film, black and white prints.
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Sheila
A portrait of Sheila at Wesley Mission, Surry Hills.
35mm Kodak Tri-X film.
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Human Rights Day Rally
Yesterday was International Human Rights Day, where a lower than expected number of people rallied through central Sydney to demand greater recognition for human rights.
This year, Australia was selected to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council, despite international misgivings about its record on its treatment of Aboriginal peoples and refugees.
The rally was led by Aboriginal representatives who spoke out against continuing deaths in police custody and the ongoing removal of Aboriginal children from their families.
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Sol Bellear State Funeral
Today, Bungjalung man, Sol Bellear, a giant amongst Aboriginal rights activists, was remembered with a state funeral at Redfern Oval.
Bellear was a significant leader, having been involved in the founding of the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal Housing Service and the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. He was also an Aboriginal delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. But perhaps his greatest contribution to public life was the establishment and proliferation of Aboriginal Medical Services in Sydney, around NSW and across Australia.
Sol Bellear was also an important figure in rugby league, particularly for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Redfern All Blacks.
Today's funeral was attended by a large contingent of family, friends and the public.
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Vale Bejame - Dennis Walker Senior
In memoriam of Aboriginal activist and elder, Dennis Walker Snr - Bejame - who passed away on the 4th of December 2017 at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Bejame, a Noonucal man, was a key figure in the Aboriginal rights movement in the 1970s, and a founder of the Black Panther Party in Australia.
He is pictured here in his van, where he spent his last years - and his last moments, at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy - fighting for sovereignty and treaty until his last breath.
Some of his work can be found on his website, Treaty Now.
This image is published with the permission of his family.
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Homeground 2017 - Day 2
Photographs from Homeground, a festival of First Nations music, dance and culture.
Central to the festival is Dance Rites, where Aboriginal dance troupes battle it out for the mantle of competition champions for 2017.
This year, the Kulgoodah Dancers from Woorabinda in Queensland took out the title. The Q Town Mura Kebile Dancers from the Torres Strait were runners up, while the Allkumo Dancers from Cape York took out Best Wild Card.
The two-day festival culminated in the much anticipated performance of Yothu Yindi and the Treaty Project who played to a rapturous crowd.
Support was provided by Mau Power, the Malu Kiai Mura Buai Dance Company from Torres Strait, the Muggera Dancers, Rako Pasefika from Rotuma Fjii and Sorong Samarai from West Papua.
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Matt
Portrait of Matt, homeless rough sleeper, Kings Cross.
35mm Black and white film, Kodak Tri-X 400.
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Homeground 2017 - Day 1
Homeground is an annual festival of First Nations dance, music and culture held outside the Sydney Opera House. Over 300 performers from around the world gather to showcase their skills and culture.
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Celebrating Equality
Around 10,000 people flooded Sydney's CBD to celebrate the success of the YES campaign for same sex marriage.
61.1% of respondents voted in favour of marriage equality in the government's postal survey.
Starting from Taylor square, crowds spilt onto Oxford Street, Sydney's famed LGBTQIA+ district and marched to Hyde Park, dancing to mobile sound systems and celebrating deep into the night.
But the battle is not quite won, with conservative politicians attempting to stymie legislation for marriage equality and roll back anti-discrimination laws. Meanwhile, other human rights issues in Australia still await redress: Aboriginal sovereignty, refugee protection, equal pay for women, labour rights and a slew of environmental issues.
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YES!
Today, the results of the Same-Sex Marriage postal survey were announced, with the 'Yes' campaign winning a resounding victory. The politicians will be under intense scrutiny to see how fully and quickly they implement the result as legislation.
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Portraits on 35mm Black and White Film
It's been a long time, but revisiting 35mm black and white film is more challenging than I remember.
A variety of portraits over a few days.
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National Gathering, Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Day 2
Photographs from Day 2 of the historic National Gathering of First Nations at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Ngunnawal Country.
Representatives from many different clan groups from a variety of First Nations across the continent descended on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra to discuss formalising a process of recognition of each other's sovereignty.
The two-day meeting concluded with a broad agreement to take a draft statement back to clan groups to mandate delegates for the next National Gathering early next year to work towards a series of First Nation to First Nation 'treaty'-like agreements.
In a parallel action, The Lobby restaurant next to the Embassy (the location where Julia Gillard lost her shoe in 2012) was occupied after an eviction notice was issued by Ngunnawal representatives. The occupiers met with police and government officers to demand the site - up until now, earmarked for demolition - be developed as a Ngunnawal cultural centre. The parties will meet again this Wednesday the 8th of November 2017 to discuss the next move and negotiate an outcome. In the meantime, the Ngunnawal will continue to occupy the site.
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Aunty Jenny Munro and the 'Sovereign Wave'
Aunty Jenny Munro gives the 'Sovereign Wave' from the caravan where her sister, Isabel Coe, lived for many years at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.
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National Gathering, Aboriginal Tent Embassy
Photographs from Day 1 of the historic National Gathering of First Nations at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Ngunnawal Country.
Representatives from many different clan groups from a variety of First Nations across the continent descended on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra to discuss formalising a process of recognition of each other's sovereignty.
*click on images for full screen view
Uncle Les Coe at the National Gathering, Aboriginal Tent Embassy
Uncle Les Coe leads discussions at the historic National Gathering at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, Ngunnawal Country.
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Barbara McGrady - II
Gomeroi Murri Yinah photographer, Barbara McGrady.
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Barbara McGrady
Portrait of Gomeroi Murri Yinah photographer, Barbara McGrady.
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