Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari

Mervyn Bishop
Wailwan people, New South Wales
July 1945

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari
1975
gelatin-silver photograph
Place made
Northern Territory
Medium
gelatin-silver photograph
Dimensions
40.0 x 27.2 cm (image)
50.5 x 40.5 cm (sheet)
Credit line
Board Members Fund 2009
Accession number
20096Ph26
Signature and date
Signed and dated l.r., pen & black ink "Mervyn Bishop 1975".
Media category
Photograph
Collection area
Australian photographs - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Copyright
© Photograph by Mervyn G Bishop, Courtesy the Australian Government

  • A Wailwan man, Mervyn Bishop was born and raised in Brewarrina in northwestern New South Wales. He commenced a four-year cadetship at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963 and became the first Aboriginal press photographer in Australia, working for the Herald for seventeen years in total and documenting many significant moments in contemporary Australian life.

    Bishop’s most notable image, however, was created while working as a photographer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Canberra in the mid-1970s. It records a key moment in the history of the Aboriginal land rights movement, when, after nine years of struggle, Daguragu (Wattie Creek) was returned to its traditional Gurindji owners. In a symbolic gesture to mark the occasion, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of Gurindji elder, Vincent Lingiari. 

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs


  • [Book] AGSA 500.