City of Sydney Fire Station, David Jones Building, Sydney Masonic Centre, Sydney Masonic Centre and Peter Drew’s Aussie Poster originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Love that the Aussie poster has been edited by the locals.
via: What Is A Real Aussie? Street artist Peter Drew tackles national identity in poster campaign
A street artist who raised the profile of immigration issues with his Real Australians Say Welcome campaign is at work again on a new project asking What Is A Real Aussie?
“It’s sort of saying to the audience: ‘Aussie? Is this what you think?'” artist Peter Drew said.
“Because this is the truth of our history.
“I think art should ask questions and I try to do it in a friendly way.”
Drew said he went through the national archives in search of images of past Australians and found images of the cameleers from a century ago.
“The cameleers were camel drivers, mostly from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and they helped explore the outback and helped establish rail networks,” he said.
“They basically ran the outback for 70 years and not many people know they existed.
“The campaign is really based around one guy in particular and his name was Monga Khan.”
The Adelaide artist said Khan applied about 100 years ago for an exemption from the white Australia policy.
“I thought this guy’s portrait was particularly heroic … he can become a symbol for all those people who had to go through that process. I’d really like to make him famous,” he said.
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