Go beyond to find real Aboriginal male
Monday Feb 4 12:16 AEDT
Aboriginal men are sick of being stereotyped as paedophiles, wife abusers or alcoholics, says the curator of a new photography exhibition focusing on indigenous men and their place in the community.
Contrary to common perceptions, they hold down jobs, pay taxes, bring up families and own homes - the same as any other male member of the population, Campbelltown Arts Centre's Indigenous curator Djon Mundine says.
There are also now a lot more Gay Aboriginal men "in a public way", he adds.
Views of Aboriginal men are on show in a new exhibition, More Than My Skin, at Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney's western suburbs from February 8 to April 20.
It brings together 100 photos, the work of six of Australia's leading Aboriginal photographers - Michael Aird, Mervyn Bishop, Gary Lee, Ricky Maynard, Peter McKenzie and Michael Riley.
The images explore what it is to be an Aboriginal male and how Aboriginal masculinity has been constructed in recent times.
Mundine says the identity of urban adult Aboriginal males has recently become the subject of intense discussion.
"The exhibition asks, `Are we warriors; and how does one escape all the negative attributes connected with that primitivist title'," he says.
The science of photography was discovered in France in 1839, not long after the arrival of Europeans in Australia in 1788.
The first black and white photographic images of Aboriginal people were taken in 1847, and eventually indigenous people themselves took hold of the camera and turned it on themselves.
"For most of our history we were at the 'victim' end of the lens," Mundine says.
"It was only towards the end of the 1800s that some yet to be recognised Aboriginal people moved behind the camera to record their vision."
With the invention of the Box Brownie, Aboriginal people started taking photos of their families and communities.
While Aboriginal photographers have worked in the media and other areas since the 1960s, it is only since the 80s that they have been exhibited. Younger ones such as Tracey Moffatt used painting and photoshopping in their work, which is now worth thousands of dollars.
The current exhibition shows a set of male Aboriginal photographers with a history of working in black and white photographs, in a similar way to the Magnum photographers when they started after World War II.
"They believe in the faith of just taking the photos," Mundine says. "Even though they all also worked in colour they believe in the truth of Black and White."
Merv Bishop commenced a four-year photography cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1962, becoming Australia's first Aboriginal press photographer.
During this period he also completed a Photography Certificate Course at Sydney Technical College - the first Aboriginal person to complete the course. Bishop was announced Press Photographer of the Year in 1971.
He has been exhibited widely since his first solo exhibition in 1991.
Since graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Queensland, Michael Aird has concentrated on documenting aspects of urban Aboriginal history and culture.
His photos taken in Queensland show, according to Mundine, "nice old men with smiles like uncles" holding stripped porcupines or fish spears and other activities.
Ricky Maynard came to prominence in 1988 with a photo essay on Aboriginal mutton bird farmers. An important aspect of his work is his belief in the value of documentary photography as a tool to effect social change.
The football photos of Peter McKenzie taken in his community of La Perouse and Redfern in Sydney are gritty accounts of junior teams, without all the glamour and money.
McKenzie has also worked as a commercial illustrator, fine artist, musician, curator, designer, guitar-maker (luthier), singer-songwriter, photographer, sculptor, writer, video-maker, museum exhibition developer and jewellery designer.
Before his premature death in 2004 Michael Riley had an impressive reputation as a photographer, filmmaker, artist and cultural activist. In 1987 he was one of the founding members of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, set up to promote the work of urban Aboriginal artists.
A major retrospective of Riley's work was held at the National Gallery of Australia in 2006/2007.
Gary Lee, a Larrakia man born and raised in Darwin, first started taking photographs of men in India in the early 90s.
"I photographed all kinds of men I came across in the street and thought to be good-looking," he said in a statement. "It seemed a novelty for most of them and there was something about their gaze - a self-pride no matter how little, apparently, some of them had.
"Eventually I extended the project to other countries and back home in Aboriginal Australia, and I also experimented with more staged settings in which I put myself in the frame to test notions of male/ethnic identity.
"I like to photograph men in their prime, innate, men who seize the moment, the power of desire."
Mundine isn't about idealising the image of indigenous men, but he says they shouldn't be demonised either.
"The thing about the blokes ... there are a lot of Aboriginal males and they're not always the best people in the world," Mundine said. "But they're more gentlemanly than the Australian cricket team is, who are still in the era of Bazza McKenzie."
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