State Library Victoria > La Trobe Journal

No 75 Autumn 2005

Colin Russell, artist. White Australia has a black history. 1987. Screenprint on white paper. H90.95/30. La Trobe Picture Collection. Produced as part of an Artist-in-Residence programme, this poster was included in the exhibition Right Here Right Now — Australia 1988, held during the Fifteenth Biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts. Poster text: White Australia has a black history. Aboriginal labour is the backbone of Australia's agricultural development, yet aborigines earn half as much as other Australians and are six times less likely to be employed. Aborigines have third world status in a first world nation. Security of aboriginal rights (encompassing land, cultural, economic and human rights) must be assured and maintained through the security of the constitution.  Aboriginal communities, determined to maintain their living culture, provide a political voice to a long and hard political struggle. Our story is in the land. It is written in those sacred places. My children will look after those places. That's the law. Bill Neidje. [screenprint poster]

Colin Russell, artist. White Australia has a black history. 1987. Screenprint on white paper. H90.95/30. La Trobe Picture Collection. Produced as part of an Artist-in-Residence programme, this poster was included in the exhibition Right Here Right Now — Australia 1988, held during the Fifteenth Biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts.