Tea and Sugar by Paul Blackmore

Details

Year: 2024
Medium: Inkjet Print on archival art paper. Framed with non-reflective perspex

• Retail price for the framed work is for pick-up from NERAM, Armidale. Shipping Australia-wide can be arranged and will be invoiced separately.
• Retail price for unframed prints already includes shipping Australia-wide

Description

HONEYOON BORE, Northern Territory. Peter Morton stands next to a fire as he cooks kangaroo tails at his outstation, a remote property on the Alyawarre homelands 325km north east of Alice Springs. He reflects on the legacy of his father, Banjo Morton, a man who once defied the entrenched power structures of the cattle industry. In 1949, Banjo, along with a small group of fellow Aboriginal stockmen, staged a quiet but powerful walk-off from the sprawling Lake Nash Cattle Station. Their demand: to be paid wages instead of rations.

Now, decades later, Peter Morton and his family are part of a landmark Stolen Wages class action against the Commonwealth Government. The lawsuit seeks justice for the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who worked on cattle stations from 1933 to 1971 across the NT, receiving little or no wages under Commonwealth wage control.

"No wages, just tea and sugar," Peter recalls, echoing the words of his father and many others who lived through the era.

For Peter and his community, the settlement represents a long-awaited acknowledgment of a painful chapter in Australia's history. But it is also a reminder of the broader fight for justice that Indigenous people continue to wage – one that goes beyond wages and rations, to land rights, the effects of the 2007 Federal Intervention and the recognition of their place in the nation's story.

Biography

Paul Blackmore is an Australian based photojournalist. Renowned for covering social and political issues in Australia and internationally, Blackmore's books, work and essays have been exhibited and published widely. In his latest body of work ‘Heat’, Blackmore exposes a culture laid bare under an ever hotter sun. Against the backdrop of Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, ‘Heat’ explores the intimate relationship between humanity and the ocean. While Blackmore's images seek beauty, they are vibrant and at times haunting reminders of our cultural and spiritual reliance on our beaches. ‘Heat’ was published as a monograph and was featured in the exhibition Water at GOMA Nov2019 - April 2020.

Home: Byron Bay, NSW

Framed work 130cm x 85cm

Unframed print