Black History
Black History
Text: Rina Garner
Photos: Sudeep Lingamneni
This collection of photographs is part of a series by Melbourne-based photographer Sudeep Lingamneni, called Black History. Shot in and around Melbourne they were aimed at "celebrating and honouring Melbourne's indigenous heritage, culture, and human rights."
The recent change in government has brought Australian race relations—both internal and external—to global attention.
Newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his historical Apology to the Stolen Generations in February of this year, officially acknowledging the abhorrent practice that took place up until the 1970s of removing mixed-race and 'unprotected' children from their aboriginal families to bring them up in white society. These actions, which tore communities apart and saw hundreds of children sent to work on farms or live on missionary-run reserves, was brought to public attention in 1997 with the 'Bringing Them Home' report. It was suggested at that time that then Prime Minister John Howard should publicly apologise for the role that the government of the day had played in authorising the removal of the children, a practise whose very existence for many years had been denied by those in power. Howard refused to apologise, and kept on refusing for his entire eleven years in office, claiming that his government was not directly responsible for the actions of the past and therefore should not be held accountable.
During Rudd's election campaign in 2007, he made a number of core promises, including signing the Kyoto Protocol, pulling Australian troops out of Iraq and delivering the much anticipated Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples. On 13 February 2008, the first sitting day of parliament, Rudd opened proceedings with the words: 'I move that: Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation's history'1. Present at the speech was every single past prime minister of the country, with one notable exception: John Howard. The motion was met with unanimous support and a standing ovation while opinion polls showed that the majority of the Australian population were in favour of Rudd's actions in delivering the apology to the 517,000 indigenous inhabitants of the country.
It was a moving speech and as an Australian recently returned home from foreign shores I felt for the first time in living memory proud to identify myself with this culture as well as astounded that a politician had finally said something that I could wholeheartedly agree with.
1 Full speech online: www.pm.gov.au
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