ELAINE SYRON
’DOWN THE BARREL:INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE’
3 AUGUST – 26 AUGUST, 2017
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance, 2017, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: To the left wall, there is a series of curled photographs and papers placed along the wall. They are all archived photographs and papers of the Indigenous Australian resistance. On the back wall there are five black and white medium photographs of protests, with the two on the left not visible. The left visible one, has an Indigenous Australian man looking forward with his head tilted, and a police officer behind him. The middle one is of a protest in a street, the third a portrait of a man wearing the map of Australia on a t-shirt with the Indigenous flag in it.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance was a solo exhibition of works by Elaine Syron. Syron’s photographs captured Indigenous resistance in and around Sydney over the past four decades. This exhibition was part retrospective of Elaine Syron’s career, part survey of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resistance she documents. Syron’s photographic archive was expanded upon with archival materials, video work, posters and annotations.
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance, 2017, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: There is a photo projector in the middle of the space, projecting 35mm film strips onto a white wall. On the left hand of the wall are three black and white posters that sit closely together and of are Indigenous rights.
Originally from Florida, USA, Elaine Syron (nee Kitchener) moved to Sydney in 1971. Having witnessed America’s civil rights movement, Syron was passionate in documenting the resistance burgeoning in Sydney. Then working as a teacher, Syron's students were the first to take her to a local protest. From there, she found out where to be and how to support these movements. She took photos for AIM (Aboriginal Islander Message),she drove around Mum Shirl (Shirley Smith), and volunteered her time and her camera to the local community.
Syron’s arrival in Sydney coincided with a flurry of activity in Sydney. In the second half of the 20th century, pivotal grassroot movements were growing in Sydney, especially from the inner city suburb of Redfern. These movements and protests were ground-breaking, and made local and national change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. These included the Aboriginal Legal Service, Aboriginal Children’s Service, Aboriginal Medical Service, Aboriginal Embassies, and community dance and theatre groups.
Many photographers have witnessed and documented these forms of resistance in Sydney, but very few were committed so deeply and for such a time as Elaine. Elaine has spent immeasurable time with community; so much so, she has become a part of the community.
The result is an archive that is as historical as it is personal. Syron’s shots are a mix of moments of opportunity, to powerful portraits. Her camera barrel invites you into the space, rather than creating space between you and the subjects.
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance, 2017, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: On the left side of the wall there is a black and white photo print of protestors with a banner that states ‘We are protesting against Aboriginal deaths in custody’, with a series of 6 x 4 inch images surrounding the photo. They all depict different perspectives of the protest. On the right, there are nine pieces of paper lined up in a 3 x 3 grid, stating ‘an incomplete timeline of resistance, and text that is placed within that.
These images are important documents of history, histories which need to be seen.
This exhibition was timely in a year of anniversaries: The 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum (1967), The 45th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (1972), The 40th anniversary of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (1977), The 30th anniversary of the N.S.W. Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (1987), The 25th anniversary of the Mabo Decision (1992), The 25th anniversary of Paul Keating’s Redfern speech (1992), The 20th anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report (1997), The 10th anniversary of the NT Intervention (2007).
These anniversaries prompted us to reflect on triumphs, losses, trauma, and the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
The title of the exhibition Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance spoke of Elaine’s photographic equipment between her and her subject. But more importantly, it spoke to the violence enacted on Indigenous peoples by the colonial system. On the bookshelf, a book can be found titled ‘From the Barrel of A Gun. The Oppression of Aborigines, 1860 – 1900’ by Andrew Markus. I (the curator) found this book a week before the exhibition opened in Fisher Library, University of Sydney. This book documents long before Syron’s photography begins, but it provides the necessary background – the systematic violence that killed Indigenous people then, still kills us today.
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance, 2017, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: This is a close up of a series of 6 x 4 inch images of different perspectives of the resistance, both in colour and in black and white. In the top right hand and bottom left hand corners, there are also old newspapers of the 1981 National Aboriginal Day March.
The main wall featured an assemblage of photograph from 1971 to 1995, flowing chronologically from left to right. This wall showed the countless ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have fought for their land, their culture, their lives.
The show drew from Elaine Syron’s archive between 1971 to 1995. More recent, digital images were not included in this show. This show was nostalgic of the past, before the Government pushed Reconciliation and Recognise. Nostalgic of when I was a kid, when I was learning this history. This education was not in the classroom; it was around the dinner table, in front of the TV watching the news, on the street protesting John Howard.
Having this show at Verge Gallery, was to bring Syron’s work back to the neighbourhood. Elaine Syron and her husband Gordon once lived in Eveleigh, only a few blocks from the Gallery. Being in the neighbourhood also refers to Verge Gallery being on site at the University of Sydney, neighbouring Redfern – home to the resistance displayed in the exhibition. This exhibition celebrated just one chapter, in the continuous resistance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Rebecca Raymond, 2017.
Down the Barrel: Indigenous Resistance, 2017, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: On the right, there is a screen with a person looking down, with two headphones placed on the left side. Next to the headphones there’s a shelf with books scattered along it.