Giving Photos & Saving Indigenous Languages in Australia

Louise is an amazing landscape photographer as well as being an Indigenous advisor for a national construction company currently working on secondment with an Aboriginal organisation in Kununurra, Western Australia. World Nomads sent her Sanchez the camera to help her give the families pictures of their own. She tells us about the “language nest” program she is a part of and how this experience was so rewarding, she has already gone out and bought her very own camera.

I have been privileged to have a number of experiences over the last couple of years that have involved my Nikon covered in ochre, red dust and grappled by children’s hands. Many photographers may not consider such travesties to be a privilege however these experiences have taught me the power of a picture or photograph to break down barriers and overcome any real or imagined cultural and language barriers or differences.

On this occasion I was able to take the photo and give it back thanks to Portrait Equality. My work took me to the East Kimberley region of Western Australia for the last 3 months on a secondment to an Aboriginal development organization, Wunan. The work component aside, the opportunities that the East Kimberley contains for a landscape photographer are endless! Intense sunsets, the majestic boab trees, carved ranges and some dramatic weather and cloud action – I’ve been in my element.

Whilst here I have also been able to participate in some community initiatives that have afforded me some great opportunities to give photos back to the region where I have taken so many. The work of the Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language and Culture Centre (MDWg) in Kununurra began in the 1970s to preserve, analyse, record, document and transmit the language and culture of the Miriwoong and Gajirrabeng people.

A ‘Language Nest’ is an environment in which young children are exposed to new language experiences. There is strong evidence to demonstrate that language nests are a powerful tool in the revitalisation of endangered languages.

The Language Nest at MDWg is one of the first to operate for Indigenous languages in Australia. It will provide a critically important program for language transmission and use immersion techniques to enable young children to learn Miriwoong. Currently there is no structured learning program for Miriwoong for young children.

I was privileged to participate in one of these language nests, in order to take some photos for the language centre’s use. Whilst there I had a fantastic chance to provide some family photos to the parents with their children, in fact it opened the door and gave me more opportunity to freely do the job that I was there to do. Any shyness and barriers dissolved and parents actively wanted me to take their kids photos when they started to see the images developing and appearing in front of them! Naturally the kids loved it too! The delight was priceless and I became the most popular kid in school!

On another occasion I attended a BBQ that had been arranged by a local Aboriginal social reference group at the town pool to engage with street kids. My favourite moment was trying to get two one-year-old twins to stand still and next to each other so I could take a photo of them for their mother. We sort of got there! And the torrential downpour that hit did nothing to deter the kids.

I cannot express enough how great the Portrait Equality concept is. Everyone wins.

The issue of taking people’s pictures whilst travelling and the question of paying for them or giving some material thing in return is highly debated and controversial amongst many photographers; to me this is the perfect solution.

In fact I love the concept so much and it’s opened so many doors for me in this experience that I have now purchased my own camera for future travels and work. “Sanchez” played a part in allowing me to become a part of the community for a window of time in a small way.

Thank you Portrait Equality, FujiFilm, World Nomads and of course the community of Kununurra for having me!”

See more of Louise’s beautiful images from the people and landscapes of the Kimberleys on Portrait Equality.

About Portrait Equality

Portrait Equality is a Sydney based not-for-profit project that loans out instant cameras to photographers travelling in developing nations and remote communities so they can provide family portraits to those they meet. The goal is to give photos, not just take them, and perhaps give a villager their first family picture.

World Nomads has sponsored Sanchez the camera for available to globetrottoing nomads, but anyone is free to apply to the project directly, or consider donating so we can give even more families a memory of their loved ones. Every $1 is one more picture.

You can follow the experiences of our World Nomads photographers here, and the rest on the Portrait Equality blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

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