Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into hand of traditional [Gurindji] landowner Vincent Lingiari, [Daguragu/Wattie Creek] Northern Territory.

1975/2021. Edition number of 25. Digital c-type photograph, signed, dated and titled, 60 x 60 cm.

Illustrated on page 81, In Dreams. Mervyn Bishop: Thirty Years of Photography, 1960-1990. Held in AGNSW, NGA.

Mervyn Bishop was born in Brewarrina in 1945. He commenced a four-year photography cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963 (where he would work for seventeen years), becoming Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer.

In 1975, he was commissioned by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to document the first land rights handback, symbolically staged by Prime Minister Whitlam and Gurindji traditional owner Vincent Lingiari. (It was Lingiari who a decade earlier had led the historic “Wave Hill Walk-Off” in protest against poor wages and conditions).

This iconic picture was shot in colour and then converted to black-and-white for publishing purposes. Only a few prints were made by Bishop prior to 1991 when he returned to his negatives to print for his touring show In Dreams.

Please note: an additional framing cost of $896.00 will be applied to this order.