Mates Exhibition Monash-Prato 2007

G'day. The Mates Exhibition of images at Monash-Prato in Italy evolved from the book that I photographed and wrote called Mates: Images and Stories from the Kimberley (2003). They are images for celebrating life. I hope that they will inspire and motivate people to put sustainable ecology ahead of the impulse for money obtained from mortgaging the planet, and a peaceful planet where people are predisposed to love and creativity in all manner of things that sanctify life.

The majority of the ‘people images’ in this exhibition are of Indigenous people from the Kimberley and the Murchison regions of Western Australia. This is simply an artefact of three decades of working in remote places where Indigenous people are the majority. The mode of engagement itself was successively transformed, some say transmogrified, from professional shooter and diesel fitter to anthropologist administering the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 of Western Australia. I am no longer involved with the state government and the Aboriginal Heritage Act, but still provide pro bono support to Indigenous battlers who strive to make the journey out of welfare that cripples human dignity and integrity.

Today the Kimberley is on the threshold of its greatest transformation since the arrival of Western Europeans. It is a corporate led transformation proposing that a suite of suicide technologies like oil, gas, coal, nuclear, large dams killing wild rivers, intensive irrigated-agriculture and genetic modification will be dominant. An ecological holocaust is in the making for the Kimberley at a time when the feasibility of solarisation, carbon-neutral and ecologically sustainable technologies with intrinsic social benefit has never been greater. The Mananambarra, the senior Indigenous people, who loved their Country are no longer with us. We must honour them and ourselves by upholding our right to peace and the sustainable ecology of our earth.

As a little bloke running about barefooted in the Australian bush, long before I could ever hope to own a camera, I looked at the world through the lens of an imaginary camera made from my own hands. This organic extension of my mind was a remarkable camera, and without doubt the best introduction to photography and imagery I could ever have had. In retrospect- creating images from beyond the delusional safety of the square is the enduring journey of my life.

It is a great honour and privilege to present images that assert the sovereignty of people and sustainable ecology over corporate prerogative. My gratitude to Renata Summo-O’Connell for asking me to give it a go, and to Monash-Prato for supporting the exhibition.

(Please respect that explanatory notes are attached with the images in good faith, and like the images, they are my copyright and have been published elsewhere by me. If the notes are good enough for use in your work, please honour yourself and me with an appropriate acknowledgement. No commercial use of images is permitted without written agreement).

Goodonyers

Kevin Shaw. Love Your Planet Images. Derby. Western Australia. May 2007.