Happy NAIDOC Week!

Celebrating and commemorating the National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Observance Committee Week - a week with an important history of resistance.
Images of the NAISDA Dancers in Hyde Park, Sydney.

More Photos From The Waterloo Aboriginal Tent Embassy

An Evening at the Waterloo Aboriginal Tent Embassy

A few photos of some of the members of the Waterloo Aboriginal Tent Embassy, who are protesting against the proposed development of the massive public housing estate in inner Sydney. Residents are fearful they will be displaced by a process of upheaval and gentrification.

Waterloo Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Following on from the successes of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy last year, Aunty Jenny Munro and her supporters have now ventured on a new project - setting up a new tent embassy to protest against the forceable removal of public housing tenants, many of whom are Aboriginal, from the Waterloo flats, scheduled for 2017.
The forces of gentrification in tandem with government and developers are again at work, displacing residents and dislocating communities. These photographs are from the first day of the new Embassy on the 25th of June, 2016.

She's Getting The Band Back Together...

Following on from the successes of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy last year, Aunty Jenny Munro and her supporters have now ventured on a new project - setting up a new tent embassy to protest against the forceable removal of public housing tenants, many of whom are Aboriginal, from the Waterloo flats, scheduled for 2017.

The forces of gentrification in tandem with government and developers are again at work, displacing residents and dislocating communities.

World's Biggest Lock On

A rally protesting against the NSW government legislation that will see jail sentences for up to 7 years for certain forms of protest, including hindering private company business (for example, of mining companies).

Here, a variety of interests voice their concern, including environmental groups, anti-CSG and Lock The Gate groups, the Knitting Nanas, Aboriginal Rights activists and civil liberties organisations. The rally took place outside the NSW Parliament House.

*Click through images for full screen view

Save TJ Hickey Park Rally

A rally to save TJ Hickey Park and the memory of the circumstances of TJ Hickey's death. A delegation met with the state minister to demand that the commemorative park not be destroyed as part of the development of Redfern Waterloo. The result of the meeting saw the minister pledge to visit the park with family and community to discuss how the issue might move forward. A small but important success for the family and its supporters in a long struggle for justice.

The Power of Mother Nature - Giant Waves off the East Coast

Some shots of the enormous waves that pounded the shoreline off Sydney, generated by a 1500km low pressure system that moved down the east coast of Australia. These shots were taken around Coogee.

King Tide and Low Pressure System at Coogee

On the way home for a nice early night but couldn't resist getting the camera out when I hit Coogee.
A combination of a massive low pressure system off the east coast of Australia and a king tide produced gigantic and devastating waves.
For anyone who knows Coogee, you know how massive these seas are. For those who don't, there's a beach under that water somewhere...
Locals say it's the biggest they've seen. The broadway is all but destroyed.

Sorry Day - Bring The Children Home, GMAR Rally

Rally to the offices of Family and Community Services demanding the cessation of the long-standing and continuing practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families.  Grandmothers Against Removal.

Dancing at Koojay

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy Exhibition - Grassroots Activism In Action

Photographs of some of the photographers (and curator) meeting for the upcoming exhibition, 'Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy - Grassroots Activism In Action'. 
Artists: Peter Crowfoot | Jarek Gasiorek | John Janson–Moore | Glenn Lockitch | Barbara McGrady | Lorna Munro | Curated by Sandy Edwards
Venue: 107 Projects, 107 Redfern Street, Redfern.
Opening:  NEXT Thursday the 26th of May, 6pm-8pm and runs until the 5th of June.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/704561336353303/?active_tab=highlights

Borroloola Clan Demonstrates at Glencore Offices

A group of traditional land owners from Borroloola in the Northern Territory demonstrates outside the Sydney offices of multinational company, Glencore, in protest of the polluting of the McArthur River from one of the world’s biggest zinc, lead and silver mines. 90% of fish stocks have reportedly been found with dangerously high levels of lead, and so these protesters brought with them evidence - poisoned fish all the way from Borroloola.
More info found at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/19/glencore-zinc-mine-must-be-shut-down-say-traditional-owners?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

ARTIVISM - Aboriginal Tent Embassy at Circular Quay

Justice for the Bowarville Three

Frontiers Wars, Peace Vigil, Black Diggers.

Here are a few more photos from the ANZAC Day weekend in Canberra, focusing on the Frontiers Wars - these of a peace vigil and lantern parade moving from the top of Mount Ainslie, past a plaque commemorating Aboriginal diggers, and then down to the Australian War Memorial.

Finalist - Head On and Percival Portrait Prizes

Here is my image, 'Sam and Robbie' that has been selected as a finalist for both the Head On and Percival Photographic Portrait Prizes. Tonight, the winner of Head On was announced, and although this image did not win, it has been a real thrill to have been selected as a finalist. It was truly humbling to have seen my photograph exhibited on the wall along side such fine work in the other finalists. The exhibition continues at the Museum of Sydney. Try to catch it if you are in town.
The winner of the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize will be announced on May the 13th.
Sam and Robbie
Born spastic cerebral palsy quadriplegic Robbie (right) has been denied a surgical procedure that would see the complete amputation of both his legs, in order to free him of worsening arthritis and bone spurs in his hips, which has resulted in ongoing and agonizing pain. 
Sam (left) has been Robbie’s sole carer for twenty-two years, despite his own degenerative spinal disease. Sam, born transsexed, has steadfastly campaigned for Robbie's right to freedom from a lifetime of pain through this radical surgery, otherwise offered to non-cerebral palsied individuals.
Robbie and Sam live together on the outskirts of Sydney where this photograph was taken. 
I met Sam and Robbie at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy where I was developing another photographic project and thought their story was an important one to tell. I travelled out to Penrith by train one day with a bag of photographic gear and spent a couple of hours shooting with them in their house. Whilst setting up for this portrait, I felt that I had a solid enough relationship with them both - and the temerity - to ask if Robbie minded being photographed in his ‘birthday suit’ (he had already joked about this earlier in the day). Without a second thought, he agreed. I think this decision lays bare both Sam and Robbie’s frank embrace of and struggle with their bodies - a kind of bald acknowledgement that asks the viewer to contemplate the complex nature of the human condition.

Frontiers Wars Commemoration ANZAC Day, Canberra

A documentation of the march to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on the 25th of April 2016 to commemorate the Frontiers Wars which commenced when then Lieutenant Cook's party shot a Gweagle man on a beach in what is now commonly known as Kurnell, Botany Bay, Sydney. The event marked the beginning of an ongoing series of wars that devastated Aboriginal Tribes across Australia.

On this day, a smoking ceremony at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy kicked the day off before the rally moved to ANZAC Parade, where a long banner was unfurled, listing just some of the battles and massacres perpetrated by European invaders. The march then proceeded towards the Australian War Memorial where, for the first time ever, a wreath was allowed to be laid by representatives of the march.

The wars remain unresolved.

*click through images for full screen view

Aboriginal Deaths In Custody Rally

It's been 25 years since the tabling in Federal Parliament of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody, and there are still repeated cases of Aboriginal deaths in custody, where around one third of all people incarcerated in Australia are Aboriginal. One of the most recent cases is that of Ms Dhu, who died while in custody in Western Australia under appalling circumstances. This is just one case of many that have occurred over many years.
This rally was held outside the Human Rights Commission in Sydney.

Stop The Despoiling of Aboriginal Artifacts, Heritage and History Rally

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Some pictures of the rally against the South East light rail line in Randwick, Sydney, which will not only see the destruction of many magnificent 150 plus-year old trees, but will also threaten to despoil thousands of Aboriginal artifacts recently found at the construction site. Over 21,000 artifacts have been found to date and there is conjecture that many thousands more lay not far beneath the surface and in the surrounding area.
Experts say that these finds are some of the most important pre-invasion artifacts found in decades and that they hint at a possible massacre site which occurred shortly after European arrival.
There is no sign that the construction works are being halted by the NSW government which means that this site is under imminent danger of being lost forever to the force of 'progress', destroying irreplaceable Aboriginal heritage and history, bypassing archeological excavation processes and ignoring proper cultural protocols.