From the moment small consumer cameras became available in Australia in the early twentieth century, Ngarrindjeri people embraced photography as a means to record their history, and represent their families, aesthetic traditions, and worldviews against the perilous times of attempted assimilation by the state, including the rampant forced removal of Aboriginal children that came to be known as the Stolen Generations. In analysing a collection of rare historical photographs from this period, taken by Ngarrindjeri photographers and retained in Ngarrindjeri families, we bring the perspectives of contemporary Ngarrindjeri Elders to bear. Significantly, the photographs can be observed to operate both as a rich counter archive to colonial representation and settler memory, and as esteemed cultural objects capable of drawing the weight of the ancestral past into the present moment, thereby tangibly enlivening cultural and spiritual connections generationally today. Our exploration in this article provides new theoretical perspectives and fresh historical insight into the ways in which photography has been substantially deployed by an Australian Aboriginal nation as a subtle and potent tool to assert self-determination, document survivance, and enact visual sovereignty.

中文翻译：

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“国家正在复活”：20 世纪中叶 Ngarrindjeri 摄影中的法律、主权和归属感

从 20 世纪早期小型消费相机在澳大利亚上市的那一刻起，Ngarrindjeri 人就将摄影作为记录他们历史、代表他们的家庭、审美传统和世界观的一种手段，以对抗国家试图同化的危险时代，包括猖獗的强制驱逐原住民儿童，后来被称为被盗的一代。在分析由 Ngarrindjeri 摄影师拍摄并保留在 Ngarrindjeri 家族中的这一时期罕见的历史照片时，我们将当代 Ngarrindjeri 长老的观点带入其中。值得注意的是，可以观察到这些照片既可以作为殖民代表和定居者记忆的丰富柜台档案，并且作为受人尊敬的文化物品，能够将祖先过去的重量吸引到当下，从而切实活跃当今世代的文化和精神联系。我们在本文中的探索提供了新的理论视角和新的历史洞察力，以了解澳大利亚土著民族将摄影作为一种微妙而有力的工具，以维护自决、记录生存和制定视觉主权的方式。