She shared everyday lives that were both gentle and grim, photographing the black community just as it stood.
Redfern in Sydney
wears a coat of many colours. A dominant colour is black, the black of the
first Australians who have held on for dear life in this innermost urban area.
The fabric of Redfern is tough and hard-wearing; contemporary Aboriginal lives
are woven right through it.
It was a labour of love to produce Ten Years From the
Heart, Lisa’s photographic exhibition based on Aboriginal life in Redfern.
Stereotyped and ignored by many Australians, in Lisa’s
pictures urban Aborigines show they do, need and hope for many of the same
things as their white brothers and sisters. In front of the camera, they show
and tell it straight. The engagement Lisa gets from her subjects is always
whole-hearted.
“I started this project, “Ten Years From the Heart” after
I shared a house with Aboriginal actor Gary Cooper, and met and worked with
Aboriginal didgeridoo (yiddaki) player Alan Dargin,” Lisa says.
“I have been fascinated by Aboriginal culture since my Dad
took me to a performance of Dreamtime stories when I was a little girl of five
or six. It was about the same time the Pintupi people were forced off their
land in Western Australia
and I remember Dad talking about it. It seemed really sad to me that these
people with such beautiful stories had no where to live.
“When I was at art school Dad and I used to talk about
what was the best way Aboriginal Australians could avoid the drug and alcohol
problems that struck native people everywhere. He always said that education
was the way to go.
“My friend Sonya Brindle has a video installation in the
show of her just talking on a very intimate level about her life,” Lisa says.
“Sonya is the daughter of the late Ken Brindle, who was an
Aboriginal activist who also believed that education was the way to go. Ken
made over 45,000 entries in the Family Records Unit, where he painstakingly
went through all the records of children separated from their families by the
Aborigines Welfare Board. He created a database to help Aboriginal people to
reconnect with their birth families. He was part of the Stolen Generation
himself.
“Sonya is a film student who wants to tell the stories of
her people in film. She wants to work in film editing. She is also the mother
of four girls! We connected on the street, just talking one day. I reckon we
will do some more work together in the future.
“Alfred Coolwell, the actor who will play didgeridoo
(yiddaki) is 43 years old,” Lisa says.
“He also is one of the Stolen Generation. He did manage to track down his
brothers and sisters but he didn’t find his parents because they had already
passed away. He is an accomplished actor, having had parts in Dirtwater
Dynasty, Crocodile Dundee 2, Blackout, Peter and Pompey (short film) and on GP.
He is currently studying music, even though he has played ‘didge’ for 30 years.
He makes jewellery as well.
“WireMC is a VERY COOL hip hop artist who’s going to be
performing. He has got a very neat myspace site www.myspace.com/wiremc and is
currently making a film clip at Eora as well. This guy is special, has a big
heart ,lots of energy and he puts it back into the kids on the Block and
elsewhere. He has got them all rapping! “
All profits from the exhibition will go to the Aboriginal
Education Council Ken Brindle Tertiary Scholarship.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION OPENING:
TEN YEARS FROM THE HEART-PHOTOGRAPHS OF REDFERN WATERLOO
CHRISSIE COTTER GALLERY
PIDCOCK
STREET, CAMPERDOWN (NEXT TO THE BOWLING CLUB)
6PM-9PM 12TH APRIL, 2007
THe exhibition will run
from the 9th to 22nd April 2007 at Chrisie Cotter
Gallery, Pidcock Street (next to the Bowling Club) Camperdown. For details and interviews contact Lisa Hogben 0418 225
965 or email lisahogben@optusnet.com.au.