The Hon Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (1916–2014) was prime minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975. As prime minister he famously returned traditional lands in the Northern Territory to the Gurindji people and his government drafted the first Commonwealth legislation to grant land rights to Aboriginal people. Ossie Cruse AM MBE (b. 1933), Aboriginal elder, pastor and former National Aboriginal Conference chairman, is a prominent campaigner for reconciliation and social justice for Australia’s indigenous peoples. Ghillar Michael Anderson was one of four Aboriginal activists who set up the original tent embassy opposite Old Parliament House on Australia Day 1972.
In 1981, Whitlam joined Cruse and Anderson on a tour of Africa, to advise Commonwealth Heads of Government of the discrimination against Aboriginal people in Australia. Juno Gemes, who has spent much of her career documenting the leading figures and moments in the struggle for Indigenous rights, photographed the three men at a press conference at Sydney Airport before their departure. Many of Gemes' portraits of Indigenous activists were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Proof: Portraits from the Movement 1978–2003.
Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Juno Gemes/Copyright Agency, 2022
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