This work is from a series centred around the Chinese proverb “to hold a book in one’s hand is to hold a house of gold” in which the artist positions himself within sites of colonial power. Set within the National Wool Museum gallery, the artist references the pose of an exhausted shearer after a long day of arduous labour. However he is reclining while reading The Fire Stick by Wulla Merrii, a novel set against the 1891 Queensland Shearer’s Strike, questioning cultural stereotypes and how they pertain to concepts of work and leisure. Dressed in sub fusc, his official uniform as an Oxford scholar, Thompson is a defiant intellectual challenging past and continued misperceptions of First Nations people, while embracing both the intersections of his identity and his ancestral heritage. Dr Christian Thompson AO is a Bidjara man of the Kunja Nation with Irish and Chinese heritage. His practice spans across video, photography, sculpture, textiles, performance and sound, evolving through a process of auto – ethnography. While employing various modes of research, he connects his own experience to larger social, political, cultural meanings and understandings. His doctoral research and art practice has had a critical impact on International and Australian art, making global history as one of the first Australian Indigenous students at Oxford University. In 2018 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished services to the visual arts and as a role model to young indigenous artists in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.Framed photograph showing a man dressed in an academic gown, laying on their back holding a book. The setting is a reconstructed shearing shed, inside the galleries of the National Wool Museum.dr christian thompson, first nations, artwork, photography, oxford, heritage, national wool museum

A small hardcovered book of 181 pages and an index including information of early settlers and runs in Northeast Victoria.non-fictionA history of settlement on and around the Upper Murray River, covering the period of 1835 to 1845, including "A short account of over two hundred runs 1835 to 1880". An excellent source of information on the colonial settlement of the Murray River. Detailed information of the first white settlers and the challenges they faced. Interesting account of conflict between settlers and indigenous population. Many indigenous words and their meaning recorded. It includes a foreword written by Rosemary Boyes, a prominent Albury-Wodonga historian.upper murray district, settlement victoria, colonial settlement, pastoral industry victoria

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN FRASER STREET, CLUNES, OUTSIDE SHOP OWNED BY LEONARD, PAPERHANGERBLACK & WHITE COPY - GROUP OF WHITE CHILDREN AROUND A MAYPOLE, WITH INDIGENOUS MAN?local history, photography, photographs, shops, leonard, paperhanger, events and celebrations