Milan Dhiiyaan at Blak Markets

The Milan Dhiiyaan cultural dance group, performs at Blak Markets, Bare Island, Bidjigal land.

Shot on a Nikon F2AS, Kodak, E100, colour reversal, 35mm film.

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Steve at Kings Cross

Steve at the iconic Coke sign at Kings Cross.

Steve has lived on the streets for the last 10 years after his father died and after a bust up with his brother. He often comes to Kings Cross, where he finds solace in his family of ‘streeties’.

I photographed Steve just after he bought this hat from the $2 shop across the road and as I saw him playfully directing traffic at the Cross.

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Lance Priestly Memorial

Today, Lance Priestly was remembered at Martin Place for his tireless work for the homeless and underprivileged. Around 150 people braved the relentless rain and wind to pay tribute to the tenacious human rights and environmental campaigner, who passed away earlier this month.

Vale Lance.

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Vale Myra Demitriou - The Stay at Home Activist

Some activists take to the streets, others stay at home.

Myra Demitriou passed away last month at the age of 94.

Myra was the last resident to be evicted from the Sirius building in Millers Point, the iconic harbour-side public housing estate that is making way for luxury apartments. She was 91 years old at the time, and blind. For Myra, her home at Sirius was far more than the ‘million-dollar’ views it provided.

Myra became one of the leading voices against the redevelopment of Millers Point during a long campaign that saw local residents hold out against the State Government and land developers, from 2014 to 2018. She steadfastly refused to be moved from the home that she wanted to see out her last years in - staying at home was a kind of activism that galvanised the community.

Ultimately, big power, money and vested interests won out, but the efforts of Myra Demitriou and the other residents of Millers Point serve as an example of the importance of community and solidarity.

These photos were taken in 2014 and are part of a series of portraits of Millers Point residents of that time.

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Remembrance Day: Mark Mason

The family and supporters of Gomeroi man, Mark Mason Snr., gathered at NSW Parliament today to mark the 11th anniversary of his death at the hands of police in 2010, when he was cornered, tasered and shot in Collerenebri in north-western NSW.

Mr Mason’s daughter, Darlene, and other family members and supporters spoke out against Aboriginal deaths in custody and demanded justice.

Two more Aboriginal men were killed in custody just this week, as the death toll rapidly nears 500 since the Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was handed down in 1991.

The protestors at today’s rally marched down Macquarie Street to nearby Hyde Park.

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COP26 Global Day of Action For Climate Change - Sydney, Gadigal

Images from yesterday’s COP26 Global Day of Action for Climate Change in Sydney, Gadigal, part of a world wide protest movement aimed at pressuring governments to find an immediate pathway to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in an attempt to reach at least net zero emissions by 2050.

Around 1,000 people turned up to Hyde Park North and marched to Circular Quay. Much focus was on how climate change affects Aboriginal people and Pacific Islanders in particular.

So far, COP26, held in Glasgow, has failed to come up with any substantive and effective agreement on how to reach net zero. Speakers at yesterday’s rally in Sydney emphasised that real change had to come from the public, as governments and corporations around the world had proved time and again that they could not provide leadership on this crucial issue.

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Barbara McGrady

Barbara McGrady, Glebe, 2019.

Shot on a Nikon F2AS, Kodak, Tri-X, black and white 35mm film.

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COP26 - Rebellion of One, Sydney, Gadigal

Images from today’s COP 26 ‘Rebellion of One’ action in Sydney, Gadigal, by Extinction Rebellion (XR).

As decisions on climate change are about to be made at the United Nations’ COP 26 conference in Glasgow, climate activists are gearing up around the globe to demand world leaders take substantive action on reducing carbon emissions. COP26 runs from the 31st of October to the 12th of November and is considered a crucial opportunity to abate the climate crisis.

Decades of increasing carbon emissions are responsible for higher global temperatures, more severe droughts, the widespread loss of natural habitat and a threat to humanity and many other species. Australia, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel providers and one of the highest per capita emitters, is being seen as one of the chief reprobates at the COP26, with a history of resisting action on climate change.

Today’s XR ‘Rebellion of One’ action is part of a wider campaign that sees a single activist create a disruption in the hope it might inspire further action by others. It stands in contrast to the more traditional mass rally. More ‘Rebellion of One’ actions are expected around the world in the lead up to COP26. Organiser of the action, Larissa Payne, scaled a 5 metre ladder and locked on, just outside the Sydney Opera House and opposite the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Police arrived soon after. Ms Payne was eventually arrested and taken into custody.

A large climate protest is expected to take place in Sydney, Gadigal this Saturday, the 6th of November.

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Justice For JC - Deaths In Custody Rally

Around 100 people turned up outside the Supreme Court in Sydney to protest against the not guilty finding of murder charges against a West Australian police officer who shot and killed Yamatji Wajarri woman, known as ‘JC’, in Geraldton in 2019. The rally was one of many simultaneously held around the country.

 

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Unsettled - The Australian Museum

Photographs from some months ago of the opening events of ‘Unsettled’, a major landmark exhibition on First Nations art and culture at the Australian Museum.

It's one of the most important exhibitions ever held at the museum. The exhibition has just re-opened after months of lockdown.

Go see it - it's a must. And yes, I am lucky enough to have a (small) image in the exhibition!

Shot on Tri-X 35mm film with a Leica M6 TTL.

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The Commuter

Portrait of a commuter.

Streets, trains, buses, offices and shops are once again filling, as the city emerges from lockdown and returns to pre-COVID, 9-to-5 life.

Shot on Tri-X 35mm film with a Leica M6 TTL.

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Afternoon Skies Over Clovelly

Strange rainbow effects in the distant sky, reflections off pooled water, refracted sunset light, seagulls and evening clouds over Clovelly this afternoon.

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Storm Over Sydney City

Photos of this afternoon’s storm over Sydney.

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I Am Well Qualified To Talk About The Taliban. I Was Tortured By Them.

By Mohammed Hossein, with John Janson-Moore.

A moral obligation…

The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.

Mohammed Hossein has started a new life in Australia but still has strong links to Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)

I was 14 years of age when the Taliban first captured Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on the 26th of September, 1996. Back then, as the Taliban entered the city, the people of Kabul were enormously excited, fed-up with years of civil war, corruption and anarchy. I can vividly remember the Taliban’s arrival. They were mostly wearing large black and white turbans, holding AK47s and shoulder-mounted missile launchers, rolling in on the backs of Toyota utes. At the time, they were warmly welcomed by the city’s residents who were hoping for stability and a chance to get on with their lives. I also remember the public execution of former president Mohammad Najibullah on the first day that the Taliban arrived into Kabul. It shocked me. It was the first of many executions I witnessed during my remaining years under the reign of the Taliban. The false dream that the Taliban were offering soon turned into a nightmare.

The speed of which the Taliban took Kabul 25 years ago, like the events of today, was rapid - almost miraculous. But Afghanistan - and especially the capital – was a different place back then. In 1996, the Taliban were seen by many of the residents of Kabul as “angels of peace”, who would bring justice, uproot corruption, and reinstate law and order. People were saying, “Angels are helping the Taliban defeat their enemies”. But as soon as the Taliban established themselves, they began rounding up their “enemies”. People were arbitrarily detained and tortured. Grounds for arrest ranged from having long hair, to having too short a beard, wearing jeans or even being too clean and tidy. The only way to secure freedom was to inform on others who had worked for the previous regime, or who belonged to different political parties. I personally witnessed numerous people who were seized by the Taliban, tortured and beaten to the point where they could not walk, before being released from captivity. The Taliban’s favourite method of torture was to tie people up and beat them with a metal cable. The beatings could go on for hours. And later, I witnessed worse – the chopping off of hands and shootings, scarring and traumatising people forever.

I was 15 when I was captured by the Taliban.

I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained…

A 14 year-old Mohammed Hossein in Kabul, 1996, just months before the Taliban took Afghanistan’s capital the first time around (supplied)

My father was a medical doctor who, throughout his whole life, never associated with any political party. He was taken by the Taliban and accused of working for the previous regime and for spying for a foreign state. He was beaten, tortured and suffocated. But he survived and was later released. He was more than 70 years old.

I was 15 when I was also captured and tortured by the Taliban, not long after. I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained, nor what I was accused of. My head was placed against my chest, my hands were tied around my neck and my feet were tied to my hands with rope. I felt like I was being forced into a ball. A number of Taliban began beating me with their AK47 butt stocks. I was beaten indiscriminately all over my body until I blacked out. Later, when I regained consciousness, I was accused of being the bodyguard of a warlord, who had lived a few blocks away from our residence. Not only had I never met this warlord but while he was in power, some years before, I would have been no older than 12 years of age – an impossibly young bodyguard. My father had to pay a large sum of money to free me from Taliban captivity.

CCF_000033_s.jpg

They cannot be believed.

The Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people…

Pictured, during a visit back to Kabul in 2003, after the fall of the Taliban to the US-led occupation (supplied)

These were not isolated cases. Rather, the Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people throughout Afghanistan, committing countless massacres against minorities such as Hazara people in the central Afghanistan, Tajiks in North and other religious minorities such as Shia and Ismailia groups. 

Mohammed Hossein fled the Taliban in 2001, arriving in Australia as a refugee (© John Janson-Moore)

Mohammed Hossein fled the Taliban in 2001, arriving in Australia as a refugee (© John Janson-Moore)

Today, when I watch the nightly news about the fall of Kabul once more and receive information on the current situation in Afghanistan from my contacts back home, I sense the same strategy is being employed all over again by the Taliban 2.0. The difference is this time they are providing verbal assurances to the public and the rest of the world that they have changed and that they will respect human rights. They cannot be believed. There are already accounts of the Taliban identifying individuals who they perceive as their “enemies”. Reuters reports that Afghans accused of working with US-led forces are being rounded up across the country, and Amnesty International are monitoring a suspected massacre of Hazara men in Ghazni, in the southeast. Journalists have been beaten in Jalalabad province and elsewhere. These are only a few examples of the Taliban’s most recent abuses and demonstrate a complete disregard for their own commitment to painting themselves as a more moderate version of their former selves.

Mohammed Hossein with his family at their home in Sydney (© John Janson-Moore)

Mohammed Hossein with his family at their home in Sydney (© John Janson-Moore)

However, the reality on the ground today is not quite what the Taliban might like people to believe and very different to the events of 1996. The Taliban are short on personnel to control and implement their rule. Some districts are governed by no more than five Taliban soldiers. Large numbers of people from the provinces have fled their advance across the country, seeking refuge on the streets and parks of Kabul. Thousands cram the international airport, desperate to escape the new reign of terror. This time round, there has been no warm welcome for the Taliban in Kabul.

In short, the Taliban are a school of thought based on a belief that their power lies in installing fear in the hearts of the Afghan people. They are imposing a corrupted interpretation of Islam that prevents women from further education and that does not tolerate other minorities and ethnicities. In such an atmosphere, the best-case scenario for the educated and free thinkers, for minorities and for those who do not endorse or share the Taliban’s political philosophy, is that life will be unbearable. In the worst-case scenario, these people will be identified, tortured, imprisoned, beaten, humiliated, and even killed. I am well qualified to talk about the Taliban. I was tortured by them. And I do not want to see today’s people of Afghanistan experience what I suffered at the hands of the Taliban 25 years ago.

Mohammed Hossein hopes for a better life for his children (© John Janson-Moore)

Mohammed Hossein hopes for a better life for his children (© John Janson-Moore)


As a moral obligation, all the Western countries that played a part in the past 20 years of the occupation of Afghanistan, must provide quotas to accept refugees escaping the brutal regime of the Taliban. Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. have each already committed to accepting tens of thousands of refugees. The Morrison government in Australia can do the same by offering at least 20,000 humanitarian places, similar in scale to what its predecessors offered during the Syrian turmoil in 2015. The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.

Mohammed Hossein fled Afghanistan in 2001 and arrived in Australia as a refugee. He now heads a construction business in Sydney’s northwest and is married with three young children. For the past 6 years, he has run a charity, Imran Care, that aims to aid and support at-risk people in Afghanistan, including widows, people with disabilities and orphans, through the provision of education, food and shelter.

To donate to Imran Care:

BSB: 062 317

A/N: 1099 2356

Account Name: Imran Care

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/584365991705048

COVID-19 has made juggling family and business even more challenging, as events unfold in Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)

COVID-19 has made juggling family and business even more challenging, as events unfold in Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)

Parklea Prison Protest Press Conference

Images from this afternoon’s press conference by Aboriginal representatives, who gave context to Monday’s Parklea Prison rooftop protest. Yesterday, the prison’s heavily armed Immediate Response Team fired tear gas on inmates who were protesting against racism and other conditions inside the jail. The protesters spelt out ‘BLM’ (Black Lives Matter) with bed sheets on the prison’s roof and ‘took a knee’ to underscore the claims of their protest, as helicopters circled overhead. The protest was eventually put down after dramatic scenes.

Wangkangurru man, Raymond Finn, whose son was detained inside Parklea at the time, reiterated that yesterday’s disturbance was a protest, rather than a riot, as characterised by the prison authorities and some media outlets.

The COVID-19 lockdown has compounded the severe conditions inside the prison, where families’ visiting rights have been restricted. Finn claimed that inmates, many of whom are Aboriginal, are brutalised as victims of racism by prison officers, and by the prison system in general. He demanded that Parklea - a private prison - stop operating for a profit from the misery of inmates, and urged for conditions to be improved. He saluted the inmates’ actions.

Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, a Gadigal-Dhurg-Yuin Elder, also spoke at today’s press conference. She expressed deep concern about Aboriginal deaths in custody and the need to understand the systemic reasons why Aboriginal people are the most incarcerated people in the world.

Researcher and activist Paddy Gibson and State Greens MP, David Shoebridge, also spoke, both decrying past and ongoing complaints about racism and conditions that they say have been emerging from the Parklea Correctional Centre for some time. Yesterday’s rooftop action, it was suggested, was a result of the prison’s lack of response and accountability to these complaints.

Today’s press conference was held outside the offices of NSW Corrective Services in Sydney’s CBD.

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Rhoda Roberts, Dance Rites, 2016

I was looking through some old archives and came across this image of Rhoda Roberts at Dance Rites, 2016.

Rhoda Roberts, a Bundjalung woman, was Head of First Nations Programming at the Sydney Opera House, where she established amongst other things, ‘Dance Rites’, an annual First Nations dance competition, cultural celebration and gathering. She stepped down from the position after nine years earlier this year.

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Pelicans at Woy Woy

Pelicans at Woy Woy.

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Aboriginal Tent Embassy

A few photos from this weekend’s visit to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, Ngunnawal-Ngambri, with Firekeeper, Albert Hartnett, Areka Quinlin and Justice, the camp dog.

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Aboriginal Whale Watching

Thanks to Uncle Max Harrison, Dean Kelly and Calita Murray for guiding us through the open seas to teach us a little about Aboriginal culture and Guriwil, the whale.

We had whales approach within metres of our boat yesterday and provide us with a spectacular show. Thank-you Guriwil!

Still hard to believe that this is all just a 30 minute boat trip from the heart of Sydney, Gadigal.

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