Cook-oo? Michael Watson at Invasion Day Rally

Photographer Brenda L Croft (1964)

Date1988

Object number00028943

NamePhotograph

MediumSilver gelatin print

DimensionsOverall: 610 × 505 mm, 0.1 kg
Display dimensions: 610 × 505 mm
Image: 610 × 380 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA black and white photograph titled 'Cook-oo? Michael Watson at Invasion Day Rally' by Brenda Croft. Taken at Redfern in Sydney on January 26, 1988, nationally known as the 'Bicentennial Celebration Day'. Indigenous Australians protested strongly on this day by staging an alternate event to promote their view of 26 January 1788 being Invasion Day when the British set foot on the land their peoples had continuously inhabited for 60,000 years. Here, Michael Watson raises his arms in a pose of strength wearing a t-shirt that read 'Cook - Who, Cook - Oo'. HistoryThe 1988 Bicentenary Australia Day celebrations in Sydney were marked by a huge and well-organised gathering and protest march by the Indigenous communities, many of whom had travelled to Sydney from all over the country. They travelled under the banner "Hope Justice and Freedom"; to remind people - as their slogan went - that white Australia had a black history. Significant numbers of the non - Indigenous Australians also joined to create a crowd of around 40,000 people who marched from Redfern Oval to Hyde Park for a public rally. Aboriginal activist Gary Foley commented about the gathering: black and white Australians together in harmony…… this is what we have always said Australia could be. SignificanceThis is a powerful example of the growing voice of protest of Indigenous Australians over their treatment and dispossession experienced over the last two centuries. The Bicentennial Celebrations of 1988 were a strong focus for the voicing of an alternate and ignored view of history, their history.