28 February 2006
A vast archive of photographs taken at a long-forgotten Aboriginal station near Healesville has provided a remarkable insight into Aboriginal community life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The photos, from Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville (north-east of Melbourne ), have been examined by Dr Jane Lydon, a postdoctoral fellow at Monash University's Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies.
Dr Lydon's findings are outlined in her landmark new book Eye Contact to be launched by Wurundjeri Elders at the Koorie Heritage Trust, in Melbourne, this Friday 3 March.
It is the first time such an extensive analysis has been undertaken of archival Aboriginal photographs from southeast Australia.
Dr Lydon, who spent nearly eight years working on the project, said the images provided Western society with an understanding of Aboriginal people.
The Coranderrk Aboriginal Station opened in the 1860s and the colonial government commissioned many photographs of its Aboriginal residents.
"The photos were not solely a tool of colonial exploitation," Dr Lydon said. "The residents of Coranderrk had a sophisticated understanding of how they were portrayed, and they became adept at manipulating their representations."
The station closed in 1924 and disappeared from public view until it was rediscovered by scholars years later. Aboriginal Australians purchased the station in 1998 and are now using the Coranderrk photographic archive in new ways, to identify family members and tell stories of their own.
Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians is published by Duke University Press (rrp $49.95).
Launch notes
What:
Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians, by Jane Lydon, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University
When: Friday, 3 March, 5.30pm for 6.00pm
Where: Koorie Heritage Trust, 295 King Street, Melbourne
Who: RSVP telephone Diana Hettihewa on +61 3 9905 4200
For further information, contact Dr Jane Lydon on +61 3 9905 1658 or Karen Stichtenoth, Media Communications on +61 3 9905 1253.
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