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Yeah, the important part about it is
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is where it was captured.
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That's the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival
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which is up in Far North Queensland,
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where our remote communities from that area
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all gather and generally gathered every two years
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to, to celebrate culture, to share knowledge,
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and to share stories.
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It had been, it's done since before
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non-indigenous people arrived in Australia.
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But these days now it's, it's one of these experiences
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where non-indigenous people
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can come and walk on this journey
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and see how people celebrate a culture.
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And I've been doing it for many, many years
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and I've photographed Eric's grandfather and uncles
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and aunties for such a long time
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that when I saw him on the sta-, side of the bora ground,
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and I had a yarn with him,
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we realised who each other were
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and I just took this quick couple of photographs.
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It wasn't structured, it wasn't really a portrait.
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It was actually capturing his essence of
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a strong, young, this man sharing culture.
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But Eric himself is just,
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he's a very quiet-spoken man that the essence of culture,
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you feel it when you're about him, the essence,
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you can't help be in awe of who he is
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and he doesn't need to say too much.
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And that's what I think speaks about this this image
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is you don't need to know much about it.
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You, I still look at it and I feel this sense of
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love and respect for our, in particular
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for our young men now to be respected for,
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apart from being cultural warriors,
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but they also now are nurturers, they're fathers.
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And that's important for us in
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in our aboriginal communities, is to realise
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that we can be strong and we are strong.
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That we also need to, to look at new ways of doing things.
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And we can re, we still maintain our connection
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to country and culture and be progressive,
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you know, aboriginal men in the future,
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I think it speaks well for where we're going.
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Absolutely, and what does winning this prize
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mean for you and for the community?
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Oh, for me.
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Wow, it's incredible.
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I've, I've, I always said that many years ago
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I won the Naidoc Artist of the Year Award,
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nothing would ever trump it.
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It was, it was that the community bestowed
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this award on me for, for the work
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that I've done over so many years.
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This one is, if not on par, it's very, very close.
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But awards are, are such an incredible thing
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because as I said, I'm looking around here in, you know
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the gallery to all these incredible,
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I call them artworks, that these captures, these artworks
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the strength and the vulnerability in them.
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I, I'm in awe of everybody that's in here.
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And, and I feel for them because I know
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what it's like to come into an award
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and not get it or come very close.
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But I also feel for them because their
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their essence is caught up in every one of these images
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and every single one of 'em is a winner.
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They really are.
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And I, we've heard all this before
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but the reality is that to get this far,
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to get into into a place like this
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which is so prestigious, is they've won already.
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So I can congratulate all of them and,
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and what it means to them, for our community,
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for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island community
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throughout the country and also all our other
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indigenous brothers and sisters around the world.
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To have an indigenous photographer
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win this type of award is deeply satisfying.
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And I think it's, it also justifies that we are
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and I'm not gonna use the word "as good",
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but we are, within ourselves, at the top of our game
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in what we do, and we need to celebrate that.
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We need to step out the shadows and go.
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"we're really good at what we do".
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And that's what it means to me.