Right to be counted

a photographic exhibition by Tobias Titz

Award-winning Melbourne photographer Tobias Titz and the Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre have collaborated with Indigenous community members from communities including Port Hedland, Yandeyarra, Carnarvon and Warralong, to create a body of photographs that articulate the communities’ thoughts, opinions and experiences regarding the 1967 referendum. Internationally renowned for his emotive polaroid-style portraits, German-born Tobias has won many awards, including first prize at the International Polaroid Award in 2000, and in 2006 was shortlisted as one of the top ten portrait photographers in Australia as part of Capture magazine’s Australia’s Top Photographers.

A defining moment in human rights for Indigenous Australians, the 1967 referendum determined whether to adjust two key phrases in the Australian Constitution. A ‘Yes’ vote would remove from section 51 of the Constitution the words: ‘other than the aboriginal people in any State for whom it is necessary to make special laws’; and remove the entire section 127: ‘In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.’ The verdict, a 90.77 per cent ‘Yes’, resulted in Indigenous Australians legally considered equal Australians, able to move around the country freely and legally share the rights of other Australians, although the battle was far from over. Significantly, by the time the referendum came around the case for Indigenous rights was so strong that a ‘No’ case was not even formulated. However, western Australia recorded the highest percentage of ‘No’ votes at 19.05%, in which Kalgoorlie had the strongest opposition. As Hedland resident Joseph Maher wrote in his photograph in Right to be Counted: ‘It was a good start, still need more work.’

To create Right to be Counted, Tobias photographed each participant in a space of their choice; then he photographed the same space without the person occupying it. Following this, Tobias taught the participants to use a leather awl to write something of their choice into the negative of the empty space—in the case of Right to be Counted, the text relates to the subjects’ perceptions of the 1967 referendum. Tobias worked directly with the project participants with the assistance of translators from Wangka Maya to teach them the hands-on skills involved in taking the photographs, processing the negatives, as well as scratching the text onto the negatives. All workshops were facilitated in groups, which encouraged interaction and active participation. Tobias says the group experience ‘gave a voice to stories’—many of which had not been aired for a long time. The collaborative process allowed younger members of the communities involved to learn about the referendum and to hear histories that contributed to their own futures. Like the photographer himself, many younger members of the communities had little or no knowledge of the referendum prior to taking part in the project. Tobias believes knowledgeexchange is important to any community. He says, ‘it allows us to understand where we come from—how to move forward.’

Right to be Counted is an exhibition highlighting the power of words. The 1967 referendum was a groundbreaking moment for Australia. It was a decision based on the removal of words from the Constitution, yet there was a long build-up preceding the referendum. Several events in particular contributed to the referendum, including the first recorded Aboriginal workers’ strike on May 1, 1946 in which at least 800 people from remote regions including Yandeyarra land in the Pilbara rebelled against their exploited status as underpaid, abused workers on local stations. One of the longest strikes in Australian history, the 1946 strike lasted until 1949, affected 20 stations and covered around 10,000 square kilometres of land.