This is one of 12 images on a series of work called On the fabric of the Ngarrindjeri body. I'm a Ngarrindjeri and Chinese man from South Australia. My mum was born on the Raukkan mission, which is south of Adelaide.
Part of the interest in creating this work was following on a couple of topics. One was the theme around ethnographic documentation of Aboriginal people, which was very sort of popular in the late 19th century. As well as, capturing a moment in my life back in 2014, where I was having this moment with an uncle of mine, Uncle Moogie. We were having a bit of an exchange of sort of cultural, learnings for me at the time.
With regards to the series On the fabric of the Ngarrindjeri body, I'm referencing things like J.W. Lindt, who was a Victorian photographer capturing images of Aboriginal people in very much a posed fashion, with taxidermied kangaroos and fake backdrops and all that sort of stuff.
The other thing with my history, there was an anthropologist named Norman Tindale working in South Australia who actually went to the Raukkan mission, or it was called Point McClay back in the day, and documented all the people who lived at the mission.
Now I have the images of all four of my great grandparents documented by Norman Tindale. Shot very much in an almost mugshot style. Front on, side on and then accompanying those images were these data cards. So, measurements, skin tone, genealogy records, everything was captured from an anthropological point of view, which made me really interested in this way. There is sort of like a double edged sword to that. So I have all this information about my family, but I don't really know what it would have been like for them at the time, to have been sort of documented in that style.
I wanted to create, in the narrative arc for this series, create a bunch of images, working with a mate of mine at the time, Richard Lyons, who while I'm in front of the camera, he was he was taking the shots. And then, within the 12 image narrative arc, I've also then grabbed the camera myself and followed my uncle around as he's getting ready to share this moment with me.
I wanted to capture this sort of in the moment, sort of feeling of a man who is so committed to retaining culture and sharing culture with South Australia and broader.
But then, create this series of images where we're having this exchange, which we're doing for the very first time, that he painted me up, and shoot it in a way that it almost looks timeless. You know, to some degree, you're typing Ngarrindjeri man or something maybe in Google, and this could come up in 20 years time perhaps.
And, you know, that was the sort of the idea about it. But then tracking that along the story for me is the important part to show this sort of what could be a historical exchange, but then contemporary life as an Aboriginal man, an elder sharing with his nephew (me) and many other people in community.
He's quite the icon in South Australia.
