Australia: Photos look at Aboriginal changes

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Source: CCTV.com | 12-01-2008 10:21

A new exhibit of works by Australian indigenous photographers has opened in Sydney. The show reveals 50 years of dramatic change in the country's Aboriginal communities through their own eyes.

50 years of dramatic change in Australia's Aboriginal  communities.

The Half Light exhibition provides a snapshot of indigenous Australia dating back to the 1960s.

It was a time when Aborigines weren't even considered Australians, and didn't have the right to vote.

Hetti Perkins, Art Gallery of New South Wales, said, "One of the criteria, not the only one, but one of the criteria for these artists has been to overturn historical representations of indigenous people, either as a dying race, or a noble savage, or constructed stereotypical depictions. And then of course, in more recent times, media depictions of drunks or troublemakers and so on."

The images on show range from fresh portraits to classic shots. The artists were encouraged to challenge stereotypes about Aboriginal people.