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autochthonous individuals in incongruous or at
least unexpected situations or poses in places that
are not clearly defi ned but are nonetheless charged
with symbolism. Among these are the seashore,
which is the portal through which the colonists
entered—the Civilised series of 2012 (fi gs. 5–7)—
and the hinterlands, which were so dear to the
Aboriginal peoples—the Stickman series, 2011 (fi gs.
1 and 11), and The Mission series, 2011 (fi gs. 8–10).
Each of Cook’s images references socially relevant
issues, whether historical or present day, which the
viewer is invited to consider with a critical eye. The
Undiscovered series, for example, calls into question
the notion of the discovery of Australia by Captain
Cook upon his landing there in April of 1770. An
attentive look at #4 in this series (fi g. 2) is enough
to make it easy to understand how absurd such a
pretension of “discovery” is in the face of the fact
that before he arrived, this land had been inhabited
for some sixty thousand years by indigenous
peoples. In Cook’s image, the roles are inverted. It
is not a conquering European that is depicted but
rather an Aboriginal man in uniform posing on the
shore with a ship at full sail in the background.
The Mother series is made up of thirteen images
and deals with a more recent but no less sensitive
subject, that of the removal of Aboriginal and mixedrace
babies from their families and their placement
into orphanages or Christian centers. This was
FIG. 11 (below):
Stickman #5. 2010.
Inkjet print on paper.
Courtesy Michael Cook and Andrew
Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.
done within the framework of the assimilation
policy supported by the Australian authorities for
nearly a century, ending only in 1969. The suffering
this injustice caused is expressed by Cook in the
solitude and poignancy of an Aboriginal woman,
impeccably dressed in 1960s fashion, trying to
photograph an absent child on a rocking horse in
the middle of the desert (fi g. 3) or patiently waiting
for a ball to be hit to her from the opposing side of
an abandoned tennis court (fi g. 4). These are just
two examples of images from this compelling series.
A related theme is explored in The Mission. The
ten images that comprise it follow the journey of
an Aboriginal woman from her native land to a
Christian mission. From image to image, it traces
the process of her assimilation, not only as she
adopts colonial clothing to cover her body but also
as she begins to consume tobacco and practice the
religion of The Book. However, this series ends on
a hopeful note. In the fi nal image, the woman is
seen leaving the mission to return to her place of
origin (fi g. 10).
The liberty with regard to actual history that
Cook allows himself demonstrates the power of
art as a means of presenting alternate realities and
as a vehicle for promises of a better future. Each
and every viewer is invited to contribute to this
process through the exercise of a lucid and engaged
perception of the world in all its complexity.
MICHAEL COOK