The Port Macquarie Historical Society, in association with author John Heath, will launch its latest publication Birrpai – Beyond the lens of Thomas Dick on Tuesday May 8, 2018.
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A Birrpai Goori, Mr Heath began researching the Thomas Dick photographs collection in 1974 after seeing a photograph of his then recently passed grandmother, Grace Bugg, during an exhibition at the Port Macquarie Museum.
Little information had been recorded about the people in Dick’s photographs and Mr Heath knew that the museum’s captioning was incorrect.
He set out to reveal the true stories of those who featured in the lens of Thomas Dick.
“I was surprised and intrigued to see photographs of my grandmother depicted as living in a pre-white contact environment, when she had been born almost 80 years after the establishment of the Port Macquarie penal settlement,” Mr Heath said.
The author’s research, intermittently over more than 40 years, has taken him far afield as Cambridge University UK as well as to documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany in 1917, in unravelling the mystery and to share his findings.
‘Birrpai…Beyond the lens of Thomas Dick’ is the outcome of this research and for the first time the reader is provided with an overview of the history of the Birrpai peoples through Goori eyes, as well as an insight into the lives of both the photographer and his subjects.
Society president Clive Smith described the book as a ‘must read’.
We are pleased to be able to publish John’s book, which fills a significant gap in the documentation of our history and our first people, the Birrpai.
- Clive Smith
“We are pleased to be able to publish John’s book, which fills a significant gap in the documentation of our history and our first people, the Birrpai,” Mr Smith said.
“This book is a must read for all who are interested in Birrpai history specifically and the wider Black/White relationships in Australia, both historic and contemporary, as well as for those interested in ethnographic photography.”
This publication is supported by Create NSW’s Cultural Grant Program, a devolved funding program administered by The Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW government.
Birrpai – Beyond the lens of Thomas Dick is available for purchase from the Port Macquarie Museum at a cost of $25. The museum is located on Clarence Street, Port Macquarie, within Port Macquarie’s cultural precinct. Enquiries phone 6583 1108.
The book launch for Birrpai – Beyond the lens of Thomas Dick, is at The Westport Club, 25 Buller Street, Port Macquarie, on Tuesday May 8, 2018 at 11am.
