Educational Value Statement: Depictions of the First Australians

Indigenous Australians are advised that this trail may include images or names of people now deceased.

This is an eclectic collection of images of Indigenous people and their traditions by colonial and post-colonial artists and photographers. The trail includes oil paintings, watercolours, sketches, lithographs and photographs created between 1790 and 1952 that portray European perceptions of Indigenous people and their cultural practices. Works by well-known artists Benjamin Duterreau, Joseph Lycett, John Skinner Prout, Tom Roberts and John Glover are included.

Depictions of the First Australians

  • The images in the trail reflect ideas and attitudes that were commonly held at the times they were produced. The images demonstrate colonial and post-colonial perceptions and cultural values relating to Indigenous Australians, in the choices made by artists and photographers when interpreting their subjects and writing captions or comments. Many depictions are now considered inappropriate representations of Indigenous people and their cultures.
  • The work of some colonial artists in the trail reflects the 18th-century 'Enlightenment' view of Indigenous people as 'noble savages'. These artists often represented their subjects as stylised romanticised figures within idyllic landscapes. Such representations probably appealed to audiences in Europe with an interest in subjects they saw as exotic and curious. Some works from the period also document Indigenous traditions and cultural practices inaccurately.
  • Some of the images reflect an erroneous belief of the early 20th century that Indigenous Australians were 'a vanishing race'. The photograph of Truganini is titled 'Last of the Aborigines' and another photograph of five people is titled 'Last of the Georges River Tribe' (titles not seen on images). While this belief was wrong, the Indigenous population had been decimated due to diseases, conflicts and dispossession resulting from British colonisation.
    * Several images in the trail depict attempts to assimilate Indigenous people. Portraits and photographs from the 1850s show Indigenous people dressed in British-style clothing and are labelled with Western names. Photographs from the first half of the 20th century show children at mission schools, where they were instructed in Western ways of life. Some of these schools discouraged or banned Indigenous cultural practices and the use of Indigenous languages.
  • Anthropological photography has played a role in recording Indigenous people and ways of life, and some images in the trail suggest a desire to record a culture for posterity. The 1905 images by Thomas Dick show people hunting for food and making the required tools. The 1890s image of an Indigenous ceremony by Kerry and Company also documents traditional practices. Some images were posed or staged in studios decorated with assorted props and foliage.
  • Many significant Indigenous people are portrayed in the trail. They include cricketer Eddie Gilbert, a fast bowler who in 1931 bowled Don Bradman for a duck (no runs), and artist Albert Namatjira, acclaimed internationally for his watercolour landscapes. Jimmy Clements, a Wiradjuri Elder known as 'King Billy', is shown at the opening of federal parliament in 1927.