Talking Aboriginal design activism — the humble protest t-shirt
By Callum Clayton-Dixon: They’re powerfully provocative, drawing attention to the issues very publicly, but with a degree of subtlety due to the t-shirt’s everyday nature. And each one has its own story.
The colonizer, from the very advent of invasion, has waged a propaganda war against our peoples, a war waged by government, church, corporation, and their so-called fourth estate — demonizing us, justifying our dispossession, dismissing the unrelenting calls for recognition of our fundamental rights, and diminishing the strength and legitimacy of our resistance. Despite having only very limited resources at its disposal, the Aboriginal movement has worked tirelessly to counter the colonial propaganda machine, with design playing a major role in this effort.
Take the humble protest t-shirt for instance. At every rally and march there’s a sea of them emblazoned with slogans like ‘White Australia has a Black history’, ‘Grand Theft Australia 26th January’, ‘Stop Black Deaths in Custody’, ‘Remember the Frontier Wars’, and ‘Sovereignty Never Ceded’. And each slogan is typically accompanied by bold imagery. Then there’s the t-shirts solely displaying the iconic Aboriginal flag, a defiant symbol of our survival against all odds, and an unequivocal statement that this always was, and always will be Aboriginal land. They’re all powerfully provocative, drawing attention to the issues very publicly, but with a degree of subtlety due to the t-shirt’s everyday nature. Consider also that such garments aren’t just worn at rallies and marches. Whether you’re walking around in the middle of Brisbane city or downtown in the Armidale mall, wearing these striking reminders of our dissent can be an incredibly simple but effective way of raising awareness and communicating messages to the general public.
Take a look back through photos and video footage of past campaigns, such as the 1982 Stolenwealth Games demonstrations in Brisbane and the 1988 Bicentennial protests in Sydney, paying attention to the variety of t-shirts worn by those participating. Common threads can be seen between the protest t-shirts produced by the movement back then and those seen at demonstrations in more recent years; they feature similar themes, motifs, colour schemes, and messages. Because of this, the great multiplicity of designs — 40 years ago and now — gives rise to a real sense of unity and common purpose.
The t-shirt worn by Yolngu hiphop artist Baker Boy in the collage above began as a photograph of a young Murri boy, Tyrone Mundraby, at Brisbane’s 2014 Invasion Day march. Bogaine Skuthorpe-Spearim and I took an edited version of the photo, coupled it with a quote from the Black Panther Party’s Huey P. Newton, “revolution has always been in the hands of the young”, and this became the front cover of Brisbane Blacks magazine Issue Four (April 2014). A few years down the track, Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance had printed the cover image on hundreds of t-shirts, now a common sight at big-city protests.
This is the story of just one protest t-shirt’s origins and development; each design produced by our movement has its own unique story. As well as illustrating how such designs can take inspiration from both our own struggle and the struggles of colonized peoples internationally (past and present), this particular protest t-shirt shows that impactful designs are often born out of collaboration, and that they can take on a life of their own.
Uyidiga lanabura (let’s speak soon)
