From ethnography to socio-and political ideopraxis: the photographic depiction of Australian aboriginals.

In this chapter I aim to demonstrate how the photographic depiction of Aborigines reflects the changing power relationships between black and white Australians since the middle of last century.

This topic has received relatively little critical attention to date .

My viewing of a wide range of examples has led me to conclude that the photographic depiction of Aborigines between the 1850's and 1990 occurs in the context of six broadly sequential categories , each with it's own unique political sub text. I will discuss these categories within a chronological framework with reference to photographs that are typically representational .

The Aboriginal people who had a considerable degree of social and spiritual sophistication, after their 50 - 150.000 years long survival on the Australian continent, evolved notions of history, past, achievement and record that are quite alien to the first world interpretations of such concepts.

When white explorers and colonists first made contact with the Aboriginal people this very different 'weltanschauung' influenced the view that the natives were rather low in the hierarchy of species and this view in turn served to legitimise much of the maltreatment and genocide of Aboriginal people that was to accompany the birth and growth of the colony.

Examples of mis-treatment of the Aboriginals litter the history of the white settlement of Australia. While it is often said that the past cannot be changed, the past in fact changes continuously, as history is re-written, in the light of new information or a re-definition of existing information. The fact that the Aboriginal people relied on their tradition of oral communication which had served them well for thousands of years, puts them at a distinct disadvantage in terms of providing visual proof of the treatment their race received from the colonists. However, the self righteous attitude of the European settlers towards the natives was so blatantly racist and unfair that no effort was made to disguise the malpractices which occurred right into this century . The first wave of colonial settlement was already over when photographic technology reached Australia and therefore the camera failed to witness a significant era. No photographs which depict Aboriginals appear to have been taken before the late 1840s. Since that time photographers appear to have been preoccupied primarily with ways of depicting the 'otherness' of Aboriginality . Outcomes of white interference and intervention with the traditional lifestyles of the Australian natives were recorded initially to legitimise the various stages of marginalizing the aborigines in their own continent .

The earliest photographic depictions of native Australians appear to be the daguerreotype portraits by Douglas T Kilburn of aborigines from the Yarra Yarra tribe taken in 1847 (plate 35) Kilburn's work was later used as a basis for illustrations in William Westgarth's book Australia Felix as well as the Illustrated London News in 1850 . Apparently Kilburn discontinued his portrayals of Aborigines after his move to Sydney in 1849 because of a lack of commercial success with such images . Ten years later the technical difficulties of the daguerreotype had been overcome with the collodio-albumen and wet collodion plates and albumen silver emulsion coated papers .

These processes with their lower cost factors, improved exposure times and, above all, the facility to make multiple prints from a single negative, facilitated the production of albums and single prints or 'views'. While such 'views' explored a wide range of subject matter, depictions of Australian natives became quite a popular theme judging by the numerous examples still extant. Images such as Antoine Fauchery's Blackfellow Painted for Corroboree (plate 36)which he created in 1857 are not dissimilar to earlier drawn recordings such as George French Angas' Portraits of Aboriginal Inhabitants(1844/5) (plate 37). Both depictions continue the notion of the noble savage but without the bizarre exaggerations that occurred in depictions a few decades earlier(plate 38) Fauchery appears to have attained his subject's consent, judging from the formal pose for the camera. This picture constitutes a typical example of the exploitative context that surrounds the photographic depictions of natives. The native 'surrenders' his appearance to a photographer who 'takes' the picture and it's inherent value as a commodity.

Fauchery's 'albums' had an obvious commercial aim and they may be compared to the 'coffee - table books' produced by modern day photojournalists. Cross-cultural depiction creates a power relationship which makes it a political act. Fauchery and many others after him, whose primary motivation for such cross cultural depiction was financial gain, added a further layer of moral and political consequence to such photographs. The following extract from a letter by Fauchery dated 20th February 1859 to the French minister of Public Instruction and Worship, who had sponsored his journey, accompanied an album of his photographs : 'If this work has merit, it is solely that of coming from afar and having been carried out in often difficult circumstances.

There are some [photographs] of great men, some of towns, some of the mines, some of the savages. There is a little of everything' The reference to the 'savages' indicates that Fauchery had little personal regard for his Aboriginal subjects Utilising both indoor and outdoor environments, during this first phase of depiction, the studios of J.W.Lindt, Jennings, Barkla & Co., Samuel Nixon and others depicted Aboriginals either in mock allegory to the concept of the 'noble savage' (see plates 39 and 40) or, conversely as 'Westernised' or 'civilised' ladies and gentlemen (plates 41 and 42).

The studio portraits of the 1860s and 70s of single Aborigines or small native family groups, formally posed and surrounded by a selection of artefacts and tools remind the modern viewer of museum exhibits complete with elements of appropriate flora and the artificial perspective of painted sky backgrounds. Such carefully arranged tableaux were designed to maximise the allophylian qualities of the subject and are, as such, generic rather than individual portrayals. The occasional depiction of white subjects in similar settings such as the studio portrait of a miner by J.W.Lindt during the early 1870s ( plate 43) suggests that commercial photographers were less motivated by ideological considerations and more by the general and profitable appeal of such images. Many of these images re-appear on postcards during the end of the 19th century often captioned again with ironic references to royalty such as 'Aboriginal princess'.

During the 1860s and 70s Aborigines had assimilated the colonist culture to the degree that the first Australian cricket team to travel to England in 1868 was composed of Aboriginal players (see plates 44 and 45). Yet, roughly at the same time, their brothers and sisters were still depicted as 'savages' (pates 46 and 47) despite the fact that they had already assimilated many of the colonists mannerisms including the dressing in western garments. In the light of Catherine De Lorenzo's statement that 'most studies of photographs of aborigines are likely to tell us a lot more about the whites who took them, than about the blacks' such facts leave little doubt that the primary concern behind these early camera portrayals of aborigines was exploitative opportunism.

The second phase of depiction describes a century long anthropological fascination with the Australian native which began during the late 1860s. The decimation of Australian Aboriginals was already well progressed by this time as was the forced integration of surviving natives into the Anglo- European culture which was extending from the coastal settlements to the most distant outback locations .

The dawning of a recognition that a record of natives including their habitats, customs, tools and processes may soon be all that survives of their culture appears to have been the catalyst for a departure from the 'views' tradition. This departure involved, initially at least, a strictly descriptive depiction of the subject and an avoidance of artificial 'props'.

This was soon followed by a more 'scientific' anthropological document . The process of making such documents was frequently recorded and can only be described as traumatic invasions of privacy and affronts to even minimal levels of human dignity. Various non-photographic data gathering techniques were employed during this time. These include notes from observation and plaster casts of faces and body-parts. The growing awareness that Aboriginals were becoming an 'endangered species', as well as a general attitude to preserve, motivated a number of individuals towards the study the Australian native. Local amateurs such as the Northern Territory police inspector Paul Foelsche and Florenz Bleeser , 'official scientific photographers' such as Dr Elliot (plate 48) and Dr Herbert Basedow as well as visiting expedition photographers such as Desire Charnay and Luigi D'Albertis began to make the photographic transition from the 'noble savage' to the depiction of a 'scientific specimen' (plate 49).

Such documents anticipate Dr. Seitz who suggested in 1898 that Aborigines are photographed according to 'anthropological requirements' due to the need to 'record the fast disappearing' race with ' several views of one and the same individual ... full face, profile , and full back... with background light ...arms hanging in their natural way ... (and placed beside) a long pole ....with feet and inches' (see plate 50). Such treatment for the sake of an anthropometric document re-affirms the racist traditions that accompanied the photographic depiction of Aborigines well into the twentieth century.

Herbert Basedow and Baldwin Spencer assembled material of considerable anthropological value but as Anne Marie Willis points out 'with racist attitudes informing much of the selection of what they chose to photograph. This stemmed from the structural position of Aborigines within Australian society, that is, they were placed outside society and thus positioned as objects to observe' .

It is debatable whether this position has substantially changed in recent times, but the degree of sympathy towards the Koori peoples was certainly more evident in the photographs by Donald Thomson. Thomson acknowledged the Australian Aborigines as a race of humans who share a unique relationship with the land and each other. This is evidenced not just by his photographic style but also by the captions which accompany the photographs. Thomson does not use the glib one line captions favoured by earlier anthropologists, but goes to some length to elaborate the non visual aspects of the scene depicted.

Present day ethnographers and visual anthropologists are aware of the delicate nature of their task. The 'uncertainty principle ' which states that 'the observer changes the observed' can be held as equally true when one culture points the camera at another. While cultural anthropologists today are cautioned to initiate their field studies 'with a period of many weeks of notations of material cultures or language or both. He tactfully avoids prying into intimate features of social life, religion , or other aspects of culture unless such information is voluntarily offered by the people.

It must further be acknowledged that the intrusion of a camera into a native population which has never before been subjected to the photographic process has led to a range of extreme reactions and consequences. . While there are numerous cases of artefacts and records including photographic material gained by white individuals prepared to mis-use a position of privileged trust extended by Aboriginals. I shall only make reference to a single example. Professor Theodore (Ted) Strehlow who, having been entrusted with sacred artefacts and the permission to photograph sacred ceremonies by the Aranda tribe, sold his unique photographs under an 'exclusive rights' contract to the German magazine Stern . The photographs were later sold by Stern with re-print permission to the Australian People magazine . It was only after the Australian publication of this material that the Aboriginal people became aware of the sacrilege. A bond of trust had been mis-used and material which according to tribal belief could not be allowed to be seen by females and uninitiated males was exploited for financial gain without regard for the dignity and religious rights of the native people.

The beginnings of anthropological depictions of Aborigines occurred roughly at the same time as the camera documentation of their 'integration'. The photo-documentation of this process is stylistically and conceptually different to the two previously described categories.

The Protectorate system which was set up in 1838 had worked so efficiently that by the middle of the century most Aborigines had settled in reserves or moved to missions. Photographic records that depict examples of Aboriginal integration were made from the late 1860s onwards. The term integration referring to the forced abandonment of tribal customs and lifestyles for the sanctioned European ways . Charles Walters' stereograph Open air service, Lake Tyers Mission Station, Gippsland (c.1868) depicts a typical scene of successful assimilation (plate 51). The pastor and a white seated female are faced by a group of Aborigines who are seated in semicircular rows. Most Aborigines appear to be dressed in western garments with a group of five females wearing what seem to be very similar white dresses and hats. The white woman's segregation from the audience circle and her proximity to the pastor suggests a 'us and them' power relationship. Walter's picture and caption must have struck a reassuring chord with the parlour viewing audience of the time.

While a great deal of historical fact-making has relied on the supporting evidence of written and photographic records, the belated interest in and acceptance of Aboriginal oral history permits minor fragments of 'truth' to surface. One example that supports this claim emerges from the case of two rather similar photographs of a Cobb and Co. Coach filled to the brim with Aboriginals (plates 52 and 53). The image on plate 52 was published in Jack Cato's The Story of the Camera in Australia (and later, in a cropped version as a picture -postcard entitled Australian Aboriginals , plate 54) was identified by Cato as'Cobbs Coach off to Lake Tyers with it's load of Aboriginals, taken by Nicholas Caire , about 1884 ' While it is a somewhat better exposure than the image on plate 53 and taken from a slightly less oblique angle, the presence of these two pictures suggests the possibility of a second photographer at work, who was also depicting this very 'staged' looking event.

The fact that the pose and expression of many individuals in the two pictures is very similar further supports this possibility. The image on plate 53 is published in Alick Jackomos and Dereck Fowell's new text Living History of Victoria. Stories of the Oral Tradition bearing the following descriptive title: 'A Cobb and Co. Coach with the people of Coranderrk. Shaw collection Courtesy Museum of Victoria'. Not only is there no mention of Caire but Coranderrk proved to be a Aboriginal housing settlement adjoining a vegetable growing station near Healesville. Since, even today, road travel from Healesville to Lake Tyers is only possible via a little used dirt road it would seem reasonable to speculate that this was not one of the standard journeys for a Cobb and Co. coach in the 1880's .

When this fact is coupled with an obviously staged media-event , a totally overloaded coach at its centre, the enigma of the depicted event deepens. A clue to the connection between the two location names mentioned in the titles for plates 52 and 53 is provided by a fragment of oral history from Angeline Morgan , the only surviving member of her family who was born at Coranderrk (in 1909) who recollects that :..'later they moved us to Lake Tyers ..' The discrepancy of dates between the Nicholas Caire picture of 1884 and the post 1909 memory of Angeline Morgan is significant because it suggests that the re -settlement of the Coranderrk Aborigines took place during a period of at least twenty-five years.

While Angeline Morgan did not go on to explain who 'they' were, another photograph's title provides a possible clue: 'Housing at Coranderrk. Board for the protection of Aborigines album. Courtesy of Museum of Victoria' . Since however the 'Board for the Protection of Aborigines' was the outcome of the 'Aborigines Protection Act of 1910' there still remains the question of a 26 year gap between Caire's photograph and a possible re-settlement attempt under the auspices of the 'Board for the Protection of Aborigines'. The only conclusions left are an incorrect dating of the Caire photograph or an 'unofficial' attempt of re-location during the 1880's.

Examination of the style of garments as well as the coach itself suggest that the date claimed by Cato for the Caire photograph is indeed accurate and thus we are left with a strong likelihood of a non-voluntary exodus of Aborigines from an area which was relatively close to Melbourne to an area which was a significant distance away from any large white settlement. The 1886 Aborigines Protection Act which allowed only Aborigines of 'full descent' and 'half castes' over the age of thirty-four to remain on stations and receive assistance from the board caused a final blow to the Aborigines who had chosen the free life away from the stations.

The fourth context of depiction presents the Aboriginal as the victim of white power and depicts the native as a broken, passive fringe dweller unable to integrate into the new society and equally unable to return to the pre-white contact life. It is generally accepted today that Aborigines became the victims of white power within a short time after the first fleet landed in Sydney cove. However, if we were to rely purely on extant photographic records, we would have to conclude that Aborigines had either benefited from their 'westernisation'(plate 55) or were allocated punishments for what must have been terrible crimes which warranted the shackling of prisoners (plate 56).

The early photographic records simply avoid the overt juxtaposition of 'victim' and 'victor' with the exception ,as already stated, of the depiction of Aboriginal prisoners. The official depictions, discussed in the previous category, intent on the verification of the apparent success of integration and education programs were hardly the appropriate vehicle for the drawing of public attention to the displaced, de-tribalised, desperately poor and frequently ill 'victims'. Consequently, only rare examples of photographic evidence exist to support the oral history tales of great poverty and the life between cultures which was the plight of the Aborigines who resisted the official integration attempts .

While a number of photographers including Fred Hardie, Donald Thomson, Axel Poignant and David Moore made sympathetic portrayals of Aborigines since their forced integration, there was little enthusiasm towards a photographic documentation of the injurious conditions inflicted on native Australians until the land rights movement of the 1970s . Only a single photographer stands out for having attempted to display his photographs in such a way that the viewers could not avoid confronting issues of injustice towards Aborigines: Dr Charles Duguid. This Scottish doctor who came to Australia in 1912 to work for the Aborigines, took some photos in 1936 which he later mounted as an exhibition.

Each image was accompanied by a caption drawing attention to special qualities in Aborigines he knew or asking us to think about the plight of the outcasts. With, for example, a title such as: Aboriginal woman and Half white child - the father can escape all responsibility (plate 57), criticisms are switched from the blacks to the whites and, of course, no room is left for an aesthetic critique on composition and tonal balance. A photograph by an unknown photographer entitled At the transcontinental Railway line, Wynbring dated 28/8/1921(plate 58) was most likely taken during a scheduled stop. The Aborigines are sandwiched between the camera as onlooker and the well attired train passengers who are aware of the camera's presence.

The natives are passive 'objects' of some passing interest because of their tatty western garments and their 'otherness'. Herbert Fishwick's photograph which was also taken along the route of the Trans-Australian Railway but three years later, in 1924 , exemplifies the polarisation between black and white Australians even stronger . Fishwick's depiction the Aboriginal woman dancing 'for the price of a few coins' (plate 59) shows an older Aborigine woman dressed in a simple 'sack' dress and holding a pipe in her left hand, dancing while a well dressed group of male and female white passengers of various ages enjoy her performance. Most of the onlookers are smiling and 'quite happy to while away a boring period of the trip' . It is likely that the black woman provided this performance so that she could continue her marginal existence of monetary dependence on white society.

The now historic 'freedom ride' led by Charles Perkins in 1965 appears to have been the catalyst for a process of Aboriginal consolidation and assertion which, although it encompasses a wide range of political, legal and social issues, is commonly acknowledged as 'the land rights struggles'. The land right struggles which often took place in front of a media contingent were something of a turning point for the modern Aborigine. Governments began the complex process of handing back tribal land and native land holders began to receive financial compensation for the granting of mining concessions on tribal lands.

The struggle for fair treatment and control over significant sites by Aboriginals and exposed the human face behind such white versus black issues as mining and land rights. While there is still a prevalence of white photographers depicting the unfolding events, their sympathies are frequently favouring the Koories. Photographic depictions of the land rights struggles made international press and various high profile photojournalists such as the German Timm Rautert arrived to depict what Australians themselves were sometimes unable or unwilling to acknowledge irrespective of their specific individual allegiances. Aborigines were still exploited but received substantial financial compensation for permitting the various mining ventures to go ahead on tribal lands.

Rautert used the format of the photo essay to convey the variety of ramifications created by the Gunwingku tribes agreement to uranium mining on their land(plate 60). Any single image from this sequence tells a story in itself but fails to provide an overview to this 'no win' situation. A mining agreement leads to short term improvement of the tribal living standards and conditions (in Western terms) but has the inevitable consequence of land destruction and waterways poisoned by uranium oxide.

The emergence of young Aboriginal photographers during the early 1980s who choose to depict their Koori peers and various concepts of Aboriginality determines the beginning of the last and most recent category of the photographic portrayal of Aborigines. Their depiction renders Aboriginality in a far more positive light than the traditional approaches towards Aboriginals that white photographers have turned into stereotypes. Members of the Kempsey Aboriginal camera club mounted an exhibition in 1982 which focused strongly on the affirmation of Aboriginal identity at the Exiles gallery entitled Black Eyes in Focus. During the same year the Australian Centre for Photography held a solo exhibition of Penny Tweedie's work. Judo Gemes showed at Hogarth and Lee Chittick at the Commonwealth Bank at Glebe These individual contributions, the emergence of the 'green lobby' which champions various Aboriginal issues and a gradual change in the mainstream attitudes, particularly in the heavily populated southern states, have served the evolution of a new balance in the relationship between white and Aboriginal Australians.

That change not only gives Aboriginals a greater voice, but indeed focuses considerable white attention on their 'otherness' because of a renewed national and international appreciation of their painting and decorative arts. This affirmation of artistic credibility bestowed on Aboriginals by a widening audience provides the After 200 Years photographic project with a ready made appreciative and sympathetic public. The same public, even a decade earlier had a far less positive or informed opinion of Australian natives. The fact that the release of the After 200 Years project coincides with a year of national celebration of 200 years of white settlement and- conversely black suppression made the project politically extremely volatile. The entire project had to be handled in an extremely sensitive and non-confrontationalist manner.

The deliberate feedback control mechanisms employed by the project support the claim that a conscious effort was made by all parties involved in this project to represent the Aboriginal people in a way that reflects two major aims : the principle aim was to represent the diversity of Aboriginal Australia, to move into everyday worlds of Aboriginal work, play, home and neighbourhood; the second, more problematic aim was to engage maximum involvement of Aboriginal people in making a statement about their lifestyle, in their own terms. While not one single image from this project can be held as broadly representational of all the others, I have selected the photograph 'Flint Djandjomerr, Trevor Nagurgurba, Lee Balambal, Abraham Dakalawuy and Esau Djandjomerr at their spear throwing lesson' (plate 59) by George Chaloupka as somehow typical of the spirit of the project.

The five boys of the 'Malgawo' tribe are formally posed, each in a one-legged stance using a 'andulg' as added support. The children are wearing a variety of western garments, but are all barefooted. The image depicts quite a number of 'first world' objects such as the forty-four gallon drums which are supporting benchtops, a camp bed which supports a resting adult male and a wire strung between trees. Despite this there is a strong feeling of free interaction with the surroundings and the orderliness of the objects from the white society provides a degree of dignity to the ambience of the eucalypt forrest surrounding the camp and the relaxed, even sleepy atmosphere suggested by the stillness of the posing boys, the high angle of the sun and the lazy body language of the reclining figure.

The intrusion of the camera is acknowledged by the formal poses and the eye contact with the viewer. The lingering impression from this image is that the gulf between traditional and western choices is not insurmountable and these young boys may well accomplishes the task. This project with it's close scrutiny and censorship mechanisms behind each image, at times reduced the photographers control to the level associated with conventions ordinarily associated with visual anthropology. However, beyond the smiles and the carefully retained or added dignity in the portrayal of individuals or groups we find a fascinating and perhaps quite unexpected result: Aborigines today cannot be stereotyped. Their goals and objectives, their voluntary or imposed lifestyles, their appearance and values are not conveniently singular but rather complex in their diversity.

This examination of Aboriginal representation has shown that there are indeed discernible 'stages' or 'categories' of depiction. These, as I have suggested in the beginning of this chapter, do not only mirror social attitudes but exemplify the changing power relationships between natives and settlers and their respective descendants. I have also further eroded the notion that photographs necessarily tell the 'truth'. The linear or sequential framework which was used during this chapter to describe the six categories of photographic depiction of Australian natives can perhaps be criticised as a rather simple model. It does however provide a structural sequence of ideological changes and their ramifications in photographic terms.

This study has convinced the writer that close co-operation between oral historians and art/photo historians is imperative and urgent. The gradual erosion of white chauvinism and racism has resulted in a socio -political climate which may support a reasonable platform for equitable co-existence in the future, the past including the photographic past, if it can be forgiven by Australia's blacks , must not be obscured or forgotten. This places special responsibilities on curators, authors and editors to make the public exposure of photographic depictions of Australian Aborigines as accessible, informative and veracious as possible .

However, even photographs that were made with a strong ideological bias can yield valuable information to a careful observer. This explains why Koories are now studying photographs from archives to learn about their traditional culture .