Ten Years From the Heart - Photographs of Redfern Waterloo

She shared everyday lives that were both gentle and grim, photographing the black community just as it stood.

Redfern in Sydney wears a coat of many colours. A dominant colour is black, the black of the first Australians who have held on for dear life in this innermost urban area. The fabric of Redfern is tough and hard-wearing; contemporary Aboriginal lives are woven right through it.

It was a labour of love to produce Ten Years From the Heart, Lisa’s photographic exhibition based on Aboriginal life in Redfern.

Stereotyped and ignored by many Australians, in Lisa’s pictures urban Aborigines show they do, need and hope for many of the same things as their white brothers and sisters. In front of the camera, they show and tell it straight. The engagement Lisa gets from her subjects is always whole-hearted.

“I started this project, “Ten Years From the Heart” after I shared a house with Aboriginal actor Gary Cooper, and met and worked with Aboriginal didgeridoo (yiddaki) player Alan Dargin,” Lisa says.

“I have been fascinated by Aboriginal culture since my Dad took me to a performance of Dreamtime stories when I was a little girl of five or six. It was about the same time the Pintupi people were forced off their land in Western Australia and I remember Dad talking about it. It seemed really sad to me that these people with such beautiful stories had no where to live.

“When I was at art school Dad and I used to talk about what was the best way Aboriginal Australians could avoid the drug and alcohol problems that struck native people everywhere. He always said that education was the way to go.

“My friend Sonya Brindle has a video installation in the show of her just talking on a very intimate level about her life,” Lisa says.

“Sonya is the daughter of the late Ken Brindle, who was an Aboriginal activist who also believed that education was the way to go. Ken made over 45,000 entries in the Family Records Unit, where he painstakingly went through all the records of children separated from their families by the Aborigines Welfare Board. He created a database to help Aboriginal people to reconnect with their birth families. He was part of the Stolen Generation himself.

“Sonya is a film student who wants to tell the stories of her people in film. She wants to work in film editing. She is also the mother of four girls! We connected on the street, just talking one day. I reckon we will do some more work together in the future.

“Alfred Coolwell, the actor who will play didgeridoo (yiddaki)  is 43 years old,” Lisa says. “He also is one of the Stolen Generation. He did manage to track down his brothers and sisters but he didn't find his parents because they had already passed away. He is an accomplished actor, having had parts in Dirtwater Dynasty, Crocodile Dundee 2, Blackout, Peter and Pompey (short film) and on GP. He is currently studying music, even though he has played ‘didge' for 30 years. He makes jewellery as well.

“WireMC is a VERY COOL hip hop artist who’s going to be performing. He has got a very neat myspace site www.myspace.com/wiremc and is currently making a film clip at Eora as well. This guy is special, has a big heart ,lots of energy and he puts it back into the kids on the Block and elsewhere. He has got them all rapping! “

All profits from the exhibition will go to the Aboriginal Education Council Ken Brindle Tertiary Scholarship.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION OPENING:

TEN YEARS FROM THE HEART-PHOTOGRAPHS OF REDFERN WATERLOO

CHRISSIE COTTER GALLERY

PIDCOCK STREET, CAMPERDOWN (NEXT TO THE BOWLING CLUB)

6PM-9PM 12TH APRIL, 2007

THe exhibition  will run from the 9^th to 22^nd April 2007 at Chrisie Cotter Gallery, Pidcock Street (next to the Bowling Club) Camperdown. For details and interviews contact Lisa Hogben 0418 225 965 or email lisahogben@optusnet.com.au.