Recently on my voyage back from Adelaide I was invited by Esther Seery to spend an hour with her family to document through portraiture author, Elder and activist Eileen Wani Wingfield and her three sisters at their home in Port Augusta. The portraits had to be fast as I didn’t want to interrupt the ladies tv show and I also had to get back on the road before the kangaroos and bullocks decided to come out from their slumber.
This experience showed me my clear progression in creating connection and listening to peoples stories and history whilst interacting and capturing moments in time.
The importance of these types of encounters are never lost on me and it is with the upmost respect that I create these images. This opportunity won’t come along again and I am painfully aware of the reverence of being invited to sit with these strong woman who have helped shape Australia in a much better way showing me that amongst all of the negativity of the media and government there are still people willing to put themselves out there to exact change.
In 1995 Eileen led a successfuly campaign to halt the building of a nuclear wate dump at Woomera alongside many other strong elders of the time and was jointly awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003.
'It's from our grandmothers and our grandfathers that we've learned about the land. This learning isn't written on paper as the whitefellas knowledge is. We carry it in our heads and we're talking from our hearts, for the land.'
great images and stories, thanks for sharing them Dave
wow