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Calling the Shots on Aboriginal Photographies by Olivia Heidrich 11 April 2014
H
istorical photographs of Aboriginal people were often taken in unequal, sometimes exploitative circumstances. Today, though, these images represent a rich cultural heritage for their descendants who can use them to explore Aboriginal history, to identify relatives, and to reclaim their culture. Rather than telling us what ‘the white photographer saw’, Calling the shots focuses on the interactions between the photographer and Indigenous people, and the living meanings the photos have today, especially the importance and meaning of photographic archives. As Calling the shots explores the history of photography in each colony, we’re provided with a rich and varied series of historical social landscapes from the earliest colonisation in the south-east of the country, to the north and west, later. Jane Lydon brings together a group of Indigenous and nonIndigenous researchers to reveal the different ways of understanding historical images and to examine the active role played by Indigenous people in photography as a process of encounter and exchange. There are many ways of looking at photos, and Calling the shots reveals the stories of people often ignored in official histories. The result is a fresh perspective on Australia’s past, and on present-day Indigenous identities. Jane Lydon is the Wesfarmers Chair in Australian History and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Western Australia. She has
worked in Australian heritage for twenty-seven years. Her previous books include Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians and The Flash of Recognition: Photography and the emergence of Indigenous rights. Contributors include: Julie Gough, Jane Lydon, Sari Braithwaite, Shauna Bostock-Smith, Lawrence Bamblett, Michael Aird, Karen
Hughes and Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, Donna Oxenham, Laurie Baymarrwangga and Bentley James. “This book allows us to unpack, re-piece and juxtapose divergent photographic stories about how and why photographs of Aboriginal people were made and kept.” (Brook Andrew, artist)
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