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Citizenship

Artist Sally Morgan (1951)

Date1988

Object number00019052

NameScreenprint

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 740 × 565 mm
Sheet: 740 × 565 mm
Image: 585 × 368 mm
Display dimensions: 740 × 565 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionBlack and white screen print by Sally Morgan titled 'Citizenship' depicting the profile cartoon image of a dog wearing an identity tag and chain around its neck that reads 'Australian Citizen'. The text below the image reads "in 1944 Aborigines were allowed to become "Australian Citizens". Aboriginal people called their citizenship papers "Dog Tags". We had to be licensed to be called Australian." This particular work documents the fact that Aboriginal people were given nominal "citizenship" in 1944 but still did not have citizen rights such as the Vote or Equal Pay until the late 1960s and whose lifestyles did not represent that of the average Australian citizen and to this day still do not.HistorySally Morgan is an extremely well known Aboriginal Artist. Sally rose to prominence with the publication of her book "My Place" which documented her discovery of her Aboriginality and her subsequent search for her relations in the far north of Western Australia. Her books and artwork explore the dispossession of Aboriginal people and their land and the inhuman government policies of the day which took children away from their families, locked people in gaol-like reserves and allowed station owners to treat local Aboriginal people like farm assets. SignificanceFor most Australians citizenship is an accepted right. But for Aboriginal Australians it is a basic right that had to be fought for and was achieved only in stages. Much of their adult life, and that of their children, was controlled by the government who had little comprehension of traditional lifestyles and adhered to the belief that Aboriginal Australians needed to be assimilated into white society and religion.