Hell yes it hurts

In 1991 Helga travelled from Melbourne with other artists and an art dealer to the Arnhem Land communities of Ngukurr and Numbalwar as part of a cultural exchange. Indigenous artists were being encouraged to paint as a way of earning a living, keeping stories and culture alive, while also satisfying the growing demand for indigenous art in major cities. En route, they camped with Bessie and Jacob Riley, who lived by the Roper River on an Outstation. Bessie and Jacob had lived rough for many years in Darwin before returning to their ancestral country, hunting and fishing to sustain themselves. Since then, their lives improved immensely. The Outstation Movement was a voluntary relocation of indigenous Australians from towns to remote outposts on traditional tribal land. More than 10,000 indigenous Australians live on 500 Outstations in the Northern Territory. The successful movement provides social, spiritual, cultural and health benefits yet government support is minimal at best.

Biography:
Helga Salwe (b. Australia 1960) is a freelance photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. She studied photography at RMIT University and holds a Masters degree in Contemporary Art from the Victorian College of the Arts. Helga has worked for major metropolitan newspapers and magazines including The Age, The Good Weekend and The Times on Sunday. Her work is widely exhibited and held in numerous public and private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, The National Library of Australia and the Epworth Art Collection. In 2015, Five Mile Press published a book of her work titled Mother Country. In 2019, she was invited to exhibit at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China and in 2020 her work will be featured at the Auckland Photography Festival in New Zealand. Her background is in photojournalism but she now prefers to work on long form documentary projects concerning environmental issues.