PDF (Whole Thesis) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern ...

around a campfire, watched by three Indigenous men who are positioned in the immediate
foreground; two standing on the extreme left, hiding behind a tree and facing towards the
group of explorers and the third on the far right of the immediate foreground, crouching
behind some scrub. Whilst the body of the third man faces towards the explorers, he has
twisted his neck and head around to face the observer. All three Indigenous men are dressed
in traditional attire with face paint and spears. The explorers, around the campfire, are
positioned talking to each other, one is standing up and the other three are sitting down, and
all are facing the fire in a semi circle. They are in the mid-ground of the image, within a
clearing of the surrounding bush. Behind the three explorers appears to be their rolled
bedding. The extreme background is made up of a bushscape with what appears to be either
a river or billabong (small watering hole). Trees and scrub separate the three Indigenous men
from the explorers, creating a physical boundary between them.
Source 6.5. “Blacks about to attack Leichhardt’s camp” from Social
Studies for Queensland Schools grade (Department of Education,
1959/1962/1966, p. 69).
Source 6.5 portrays Indigenous Australians as both perpetrators of violence and as belonging
to the natural environments. The crouched Indigenous men looking at the observer gives a
sense of adventure, as though the observer is ‘in on the act’, and although the title indicates
that the Indigenous men are the perpetrators of the violence, this image nevertheless creates a
feeling of familiarity with them. With the explorers talking in a circle, unaware of being
watched, a sense of their vulnerability is communicated. A binary of the differences between
the Indigenous Australians and explorers is created by having the trees and bush separating
them, clearly demonstrating difference between the two groups, which also inscribes
Indigenous Australians’ place in nature rather than ‘civilisation’.
207