The original '78ers - a group of activists who, with up to 1000 others marched down Oxford Street to Taylor Square in 1978, when 'acts of homosexuality' were still illegal in Australia. There they were met by baton-wielding police who proceed to beat and arrest many of the marchers. Some almost lost their lives. The Sydney Morning Herald printed the names of those arrested in their paper the next day as an act of public shaming. In the proceeding years, the march was repeated along the same route, in what has now become known as the Mardi Gras.
In 2016, 38 years after the first march, the New South Wales parliament, police and the Sydney Morning Herald apologized for the violence and mistreatment against these pioneers of human rights for LGBTI communities in Australia.
Happy Mardi Gras folks!
The first image was taken in 2012 on the Uzbek side of the Aral Sea, where once a shipping port stood. Since intensive cotton farming began in the 1960s, the Aral Sea has been dramatically shrinking. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, in 2014, it almost completely disappeared. The tragedy of the Aral Sea is considered one of the world's worst environmental disasters.
More info: http://www.ciesin.org/docs/006-238/006-238.html
The second image was taken in 2011 from the shores of a plentiful Menindee Lakes in far western New South Wales, Australia. But today in 2016, the Menindee Lakes is now under threat. Some also point to intensive cotton farming as well as mining further up the Darling River, which flows into the lakes. So dire is the situation that the entire water supply of Broken Hill, one of Australia's largest outback towns, is now threatened, along with the habitat of thousands of birds and wildlife. Menindee Lakes is a sacred site for the Barkindji people.
More info: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/broken-hill--why-is-australias-heritage-city-running-out-of-water-20151119-gl37m9.html
Native Fig - Randwick. One of the many 100+ year old trees earmarked for destruction to make way for light rail in Sydney's east. These historic trees had the opportunity of being saved had the light rail route been slightly altered. With the loss of these trees, wild life including possums, flying foxes and countless birds will also lose their habitat.
On the 8th anniversary of Kevin Rudd's apology for Australia's 'Stolen Generation' - the historical and systematic forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families - a group of Aboriginal grandmothers from all corners of Australia gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra to protest against the continued removal of children from their families. Since Rudd's apology, forced removals of Aboriginal children have increased by 400% - what the grandmothers say is a new and devastating stolen generation, an ongoing tactic of genocide since 1788.
Here's an attempt at some black & white sky-scapes.
January 26th 2016 - 228 years since the arrival of the first fleet in Sydney Harbour and the beginning of generations of dispossession, colonization, genocide and survival. To commemorate the occasion, this year's annual march began at the Block in Redfern and wound its way through the city streets of Sydney to Town Hall for speeches and then to 'Australia Hall' on Elizabeth Street, following in the footsteps of the first Day of Mourning held by Aboriginal activists and supporters in 1938.
FLASHBACK: Shots from 20 years ago - Yuendumu and Nyirripi, 300 and 500 kms north west of Alice Springs respectively, in the Central Australian Tanamai desert region, where I lived for 2 years with the Warlpiri mob, and where I worked on community film projects, including 'Marluku Wirlinyi - The Kangaroo Hunters' (SBS) and 'Night Patrol' (ABC); as well as a host of other local television, radio and video projects. These photos, some of which were used as production stills, were shot with an Olympus OM 2n on 35mm colour reversal film and scanned (poorly). Time to get them re-scanned! Add that task to the list... Photos taken at Yuendumu, Nyirripi, Pmara Junta, Papunya and surrounding homelands.
WARNING to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Some of the images here portray people who have passed away.
UK spoken word and hip hop artist, Akala, performed as a part of Critical Conversations, a forum about the power of spoken word performance as an agent for change. Also performing were local artists, Kaveh Arya, Lorna Munro, Fuck Rappers, Chris Sulfa, Ana Claudia Paz, DA Carter and Zushan Ahmad Hashmi.
