Singaraya, Suganthi --- "'Welcome to Brewarrina' Photographic Exhibition" [1990] AboriginalLawB 8; (1990) 1(42) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 19

• 'Welcome To Brewarrina' Photographic Exhibition

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'Welcome to Brewarrina' Photographic Exhibition

by Suganthi Singaraya

'Welcome to Brewarrina' is a photographic exhibition that combines the work of Sandy Edwards a white photographer from Sydney and Joe Hurst, an Aboriginal printer and set designer from Brewarrina.

The photographs are a result of Ms Edward's work for the book After 200 Years - Photographic essays of Aboriginal and Islander Australians Today, edited by Penny Taylor for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1988.

Joe Hurst has designed the display area, giving it a feeling of heat and dust, Mr Hurst's design and Ms Edwards' photographs work well together to give a feeling of heat and yet there are enough images of water to show that Brewarrina is located on the Bowan River. The photographs in the exhibition are hung on the walls around the 'Bower Shade - a shelter made of wood and corrugated iron that is described as an area of cool on a hot day - a meeting place. Behind the 'Bower Shade' is the house. One enters the house by the back door. Mr Hurst calls the back door an Australian concept - something all Australians can relate to, that welcomes people into the cool interior, where a slide show takes place.

The first photographs - on the right as you enter the exhibition area are of the Bicentennial protest marches that took place in January 1988 at La Perouse and Darling Harbour and at the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra in May 1988. These photographs make a political statement.

There is a juxtaposition of black and white. Aborigines well known through the mainstream media- Michael Mansell and Kath Walker - as well as "unknown" Aborigines are juxtaposed with white policemen and women and white camera crews.

However, it is not all heavy going - there are moments of humour and irony. A young Aboriginal protester makes a rude sign at a row of "stem" policemen, one whom smiles. A white woman in a black and white bikini lies on a beach towel at La Perouse while clothed Aboriginal protesters march behind her.

The other photographers are of daily life in Brewarrina. From the court cases that followed Lloyd Boney's death to the festival of the fisheries and wedding preparations.

The slide show which takes place inside the house is accompanied by a recording of children's chatter and laughter.

The images are of outback Australia - but they also remind one of small American country towns - especially in the American South. There are photographs of different generations of women together, that seem to be very obviously "American". Ms Edwards childhood was influenced by American magazines - Time Life and Saturday Evening Post, amongst others and American photographers such as Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke White and Dorothea Lange. This helps to explain why one seems to be seeing snatches of American small-town life.

The photographs while showing Ms Edwards influence by traditional documentary photography methods also show the "commonality' of people through pictorial images.