Creating Conversations

Here, we see Allan deSouza’s No Entry paired with Ricky Maynard’s Wik Elder, Gladys.

• Ricky Maynard, an Indigenous Tasmanian artist, created the photographic series Returning to the Places that Name Us in 2000. Maynard memorializes Indigenous woman Gladys Tybingoompa (1946-2006), who spent her life fighting for equal land ownership for the Wik people in Cape York, Queensland, Australia.
• This photograph is one of five Wik Elders portraits that Maynard created to bring attention to governmental decisions that were happening to the Wik people. Gladys famously danced outside of the Australian High Court on the day the court handed down its decision that Indigenous communities should have jurisdiction over their own land. 
• This photographic portrait was acquired by The Phillips Collection as part of an effort to present a more diverse, inclusive, and globalized perspective of photography. 

Look back at No Entry and Wik Elder, Gladys. What do you notice that connects these artworks?