Australia 1

Brook Andrew explores sport as an avenue for promoting cultural pride and aspiration. Drawing from nineteenth century ethnographic material collected from a government expedition to the Murray and Darling river junctions, Australia 1 (2012) captures the social bonding and camaraderie of a particular traditional game of the local Nyeri Nyeri Aboriginal nation. Andrew's work points to a history of sport that was silenced as a strategy and legacy of colonisation. The diverse sports developed by, for example, various south-east Australian Aboriginal groups, were integrated into their respective social customs but largely erased in the wake of European settlement. This refers not only to the athletic prowess, competition and pride engendered by traditional hunting methods, but also to games played for the purposes of social bonding, and for camaraderie. The successes of high-profile Aboriginal Australians across a breadth of sporting codes have contributed inestimably to the sense of empowerment and positive esteem within some Aboriginal communities. Collectively, The hunter (2005), Monument 4 (2011) and Australia 1 (2012) reflect Brook Andrew's ongoing interest in traditions and stereotypes as well as the mass media and communication between cultures. They are stylistically diverse, but conceptually unified by Andrew's interest in celebrating traditions of Australian Aboriginal athleticism.