John Dalton, Dark Eyes Dark History (PEOPLE 2022)

At a local sitting of the Federal Court in Cherbourg (Australia) in April 2022, local First Nation people listened with mixed emotion as the judge delivered a Land Application decision. Some expressed joy at the success of their campaign. Others remembered the 180 years of dispossession, institutional confinement by the State and the ancestors who never lived to see such recognition or freedom. Young and old, their truthful dark eyes reflect a dark past with justified scepticism and restrained hope. These images condense a community’s response to being handed back control of the unused portions of what was always theirs.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.