‘This Is My Country,’ is an ongoing visual documentation of Australia’s indigenous people by Ingetje Tadros. It communicates the legacy of historical domination and oppression of Australia’s first inhabitants within a contemporary context. Tadros’s, ‘This is My Country’ is a compelling look at people balanced on the precipice of life, who for the most part are disenfranchised, neglected, and often forgotten. “Her images, confronting but always compassionate, communicate the plight of Aboriginals in Australia but also in sharp contrast and present moments of hope. Her work stands out from other photographers who have documented Australia’s indigenous inhabitants because of her collaborative approach and becoming a stakeholder in the people’s lives she is documenting,†says, Dr Jack Picone, Visiting Assistant Professor, Visual Studies Department, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. To document Australia’s indigenous people, Tadros based in Broome Western Australia travels to remote regions of Australia’s vast and unforgiving outback, and spends time in Aboriginal communities. Ingetje recalls, “I witnessed a high incidence of alcoholism, domestic violence, general health issues, an alarming frequency of suicide - communities fractured and in distress. I documented sections of communities mismanaged by their governments, not fully understood by a wider aid community, and largely left unseen by the remainder of Australian societyâ€. A voiceless and unseen minority cosigned to lives of quiet desolation. "One day I heard about a young boy, who was lost and who had alcohol syndrome, the whole community went out to look for him, they found him two days later, in a croc infested country where he had been attacked by a croc" and the stories about the suicides in the Communities, suddenly it just hit me and I knew I had to start documenting, the good and the bad and in the hope to give the Aboriginal people a voice as I feel strongly that the Aboriginal people are not treated with the respect they deserve as they are the Original Peoples of this country and there is still till this day so much disrespect and racism, when you sit with the people and hear their stories it becomes obvious how beautiful these people are, there connection with their land, their Country and their family which is something we all can learn from." Ingetje makes photographs that make visible and make heard the plight of the most exposed and vulnerable people in Australian society. Tadros’s, also reveals to us many of the moments that are often under represented in the documentation of Australia’s original inhabitants. The moments of community, family, nurture, spirituality, environment, story - telling and importantly, healing. Powerful and pervading, Tadros’s images, once seen, can’t be ignored and remind us of the power of documentary photography to question, communicate and debate the most pressing social issues facing society today. Most importantly, they remind us not to turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow man. By investing in Tadros’s longer term documentation of Australia’s indigenous inhabitants will enabled her to add further layers of nuanced meaning and resonance to their complex story in an effort to affect positive change -- with mutual purpose -- for both documentarian and Australia’s indigenous inhabitants.
