Icons of colonial injustice: From photographs to public art

Abstract

In the archive of Australian photography, few images point to the gross injustices experienced by Indigenous Australians more forcefully than a 1906 photograph depicting a group of Aboriginal people in neck chains. More recently, few images point to Indigenous self-empowerment more powerfully than a 1993 press photograph of footballer Nicky Winmar lifting his jumper to point proudly to his dark skin. This article explores the extraordinary legacy of these two images and specifically their translation into prominent contemporary public artworks – respectively, a street mural in inner Melbourne and a statue located outside a major football stadium in Perth. I argue that by drawing on, but also extending, the original content of the images, these public translations of the photographs, and the story of their coming into being, become another chapter in the lives of the images. Moreover, in the shift from print to pavement, they transform public spaces into sites of public pedagogy.