Photographic archive Installation Image

This collection of photographs taken by Rudolf Pöch in 1905 contains portraits from the Clarence Valley region of NSW of persons from the Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr Nations. It is part of an ongoing identification process in consultation with Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yaegl families and is exhibited with permission from Roberta Skinner, Grafton Ngerrie Land Council and descendant of King Tommy Dixon of Carr’s Creek (Gumbaynggirr Nation).

Rudolf Pöch (1870–1921) was an Austrian medical doctor skilled in scientific photography. Pöch set out on an anthropological expedition to Papua New Guinea supported by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna in 1904 and then onto Australia one year later. In 1905, after having acquired Aboriginal human remains as ‘reference material’ from local suppliers in Sydney, Pöch took around 100 anthropological photographs, as well as physiological measurements, during a tour of the Clarence River district north of Sydney – a region recommended to him by the Australian Museum for Indigenous ‘racial purity’. One place within this district was Grafton, which had free Aboriginal camps and the ‘Grafton Home’ that Pöch described as an ‘asylum created by the state of New South Wales’.

During his tour of Australia, Pöch registered the names and places of the Aboriginal subjects he photographed in his travel diary, which makes these photos especially important for contemporary descendants and the process of restitution and cultural legacy.

Until recently, when they were found by artist and curator Katarina Matiasek, these photographs were hidden within Austrian archives. Shortly after, on a research trip to Vienna in 2014, Australian artist Brook Andrew browsed Pöch’s photographs and, realising the rare recording of names that had taken place, recommended with urgency that they should be returned to their descendants. Andrew, Matiasek and Veronica Andrew (a Wiradjuri woman and Brook Andrew’s mother) collaborated in locating community Elders in the Grafton area. One year later, Roberta Skinner (a Gumbaynngirr historian active in the research of Aboriginal genealogy since 1995) was named as a formal contact.

Matiasek’s project Far From Settled, commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney and exhibited at Cockatoo Island, focuses on the wider topic of repatriation of human remains and photographs to Australian Aboriginal communities. In early 2020, Matiasek interviewed Roberta Skinner, among other leaders of Aboriginal communities. Based in Grafton, Skinner had earlier been vital in identifying Aboriginal Ancestors in the photography of John William Lindt (1845–1926) held by the local Schaeffer House Museum. Connecting the photography of Lindt and Pöch, Skinner currently reconstructs Aboriginal family trees, providing evidence for Native Title, in a now active land claim of the Gumbaynngirr people.

Photograph credits (by date):
18 July 1905: Aboriginal Camp (original title). On a hill above Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
19 July 1905: Rock carvings near Copmanhurst (original title). Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales,
19 July 1905: Aboriginal Camp (original title). On a hill above Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
21 July 1905: Bertie Smith (original title). Free Aboriginal Camp on a hill above Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
24 July 1905: Maggie Roberts (original title). Junction Camp, near Junction Hotel, north of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
24 July 1905: King Tommy (original title). Junction Camp, near Junction Hotel, north of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
25 July 1905: Maria (original title). Camp on the street to Copmanhurst, northwest of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
24 July 1905: King Tommy (original title). Junction Camp, near Junction Hotel, north of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales,
24 or 25 July 1905: James Avery (original title). Gadenbrough, Clarence District, New South Wales,
25 July 1905: Topsy Rayen (Ryan) (original title). Camp on the street to Copmanhurst, northwest of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Billie Martin (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Mrs Roche (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales,
26 July 1905: Dennis Roche (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Della Lorri (Laurie) (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Queen Diana and Eliza (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales,
26 July 1905: Billie Martin, Dennis Roche, old Roche, wife of Roche and Della Lorri (Laurie) (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Jessy Lorry (Laurie) (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Group of Aboriginal children, attending school at the Grafton Home (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Billie Warby (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Moody (Maudie) Roche (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
19 July 1905: Rock carvings near Copmanhurst (original title). Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
20 July 1905: Coby (Cobby) (original title). Free Aboriginal Camp on a hill above Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
20 July 1905: Geson Doyb (original title). Free Aboriginal Camp on a hill above Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
24 July 1905: Billie Hayes (original title). Camp on the street to Copmanhurst, northwest of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: 1. Billie Martin, 2. Billie Warby, 3. Jaques Lorrigo, 4. Robin Smith, 5. Arlik James, 6. Jessy Lorry (Laurie), 7. MacDonald, 8. Dennis Roche (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
26 July 1905: Eliza, small finger cut off as a sign of marriage (original title). Grafton Home, Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales
19 July 1905: Rock carvings near Copmanhurst (original title). Copmanhurst, Clarence Disctrict, New South Wales
24 July 1905: Tommy Rayen (Ryan) and Billie Hayes (original title). Camp on the street to Copmanhurst, northwest of Grafton, Clarence District, New South Wales