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Jon Rhodes is one of Australia’s outstanding photographers, and is known for his trilogy of exhibitions from Aboriginal Australia – Just another Sunrise? 1974-1975, Kundat Jaru mob 1986-1990, and Whichaway? 1974-1996.
yWhitefella WayAustralia:Jon Rhodes,2022266425172022selected work art work
'Whitefella Way is the highly-anticipated sequel to the award-winning Cage of Ghosts, a nuanced and scholarly work of ‘unusual originality’, published in 2018.
'Photographer and writer Jon Rhodes again takes the reader on nine vivid and richly illustrated journeys as he examines the intertwined histories of blackfellas and whitefellas at the Eora rock engravings on Grotto Point and Balls Head in Sydney. At the grave of Yuranigh south of Molong, and the tumulus of the ‘Black Chief’ west of Condobolin, both in Wiradjuri country. To Black Jimmy’s grave at the Bellingen Cemetery, in Gumbaynggirr country. To the Armidale Folk Museum in Nganyaywana country on the New England Tableland. To the Bundjalung bora ground in the Tucki Tucki General Cemetery south of Lismore. And to the Gubbi Gubbi stone-walled fish trap at Sandstone Point on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
'In the final chapter Rhodes investigates the mass killing of Warlpiri, Anmatyerre, Kaytej and Warumungu in the Northern Territory – the 1928 Coniston Massacre – and again asks, when will the fundamental truth of the 140-year-long Australian Frontier War be wholeheartedly acknowledged and memorialised by the government of the Commonwealth of Australia?'
yCage of GhostsThora:Darkwood,2018153046902018selected work art work
'Cage of Ghosts is a landmark publication. In this richly illustrated and thought-provoking book, photographer and writer Jon Rhodes takes the reader on a search for reminders of the almost invisible Aboriginal presence in south-eastern Australia, where the impact of European settlement has been the most intense. Without making a conscious effort, it's possible to travel all over this part of Australia, in contrast to the Centre, and never come across any significant Aboriginal places. Or to ever realise that, only a little over two centuries ago, hundreds of distinct tribes of hunter-gatherers had occupied this land for many thousands of years.' (Publication summary)