It is important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to tell our own stories, capture our own truths, and express ourselves through our own lens. Aboriginal people have been studied, photographed without consent and had our images used in ways that degrade, vilify and remove our agency. Blak photographers are so important because they’re taking back that agency, shifting the gaze and coming from a place of pride, not of curiosity or critique. No one can capture our stories and our truths like we can. There’s real power in Aboriginal people taking photos of Aboriginal people, a power that can’t be emulated.

Participating in PHOTO 2020 will mean that people from all across the country will get to engage with some of Victoria’s most exciting Indigenous photographers. It is an important opportunity for the public to educate themselves and to support the self-determination of our people by respectfully observing Aboriginal truths, told through our own lenses.

The city of Melbourne is on Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Lands; there’s a significant amount of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photographers living on these lands and making work that shares important, and often unacknowledged truths about our peoples.

As First Nations people, our stories and images are obscured constantly because they are being written and shared by people with no right to communicate them. Mistruths about our history and our community continue to hinder the public consciousness and have very serious repercussions on our minds and bodies; the internet provides an opportunity for these to be shared and manipulated further. However, it also provides a platform for content to be easily accessed. When the power and platform are in Blak hands, the noise and lies of others will be softened and eliminated, because the voices of Blak folks who tell the truth, will be the loudest.

The Koorie Heritage Trust will exhibit some of Victoria’s most exciting multi-disciplinary artists; both established and emerging, and who are staunch in their truth-telling through photography and beyond. Not limited to our gallery space, we are venturing outdoors to engage with a wider audience and hold a stronger presence in the city.