Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture explores the relationships between personal, cultural and national identity in relation to historical and contemporary portrait images by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists.

Focussing on contemporary portraits, the exhibition explores how prevailing social, political, economic and cultural conditions, past and present, have shaped perceptions and representations of Indigenous Queenslanders. The works selected for the exhibition also reflect government policies that shaped public attitudes and the lives of Indigenous peoples in Queensland.

Historical portraits include archival photographs from early colonial times and from extensive mission settlement which in turn led to segregation, the control of Aboriginal peoples’ movements, and the removal of children from parents. The effects of these are evident in the virtual lack of representation of Indigenous peoples in the mid-twentieth century. It was not until 1967 that Indigenous Australians were counted in the national census.

While their cultures and histories of contact with white settlers are very different, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples share a similar understanding of portraiture and identity which does not conform to a Western art construct of a vertical image or representation of a person. Rather, a person’s image can be portrayed through a cultural totem, a body marking, a footprint or handprint, a particular place, person’s name, or a ritual.

Finally, the word blak is a 1990s construct. Removing the small ‘c’ from ‘black’ started as a play on words attributed to activist artist Destiny Deacon. Today, it is used to convey notions of empowerment and self-determination.