PORTFOLIO: Terra Nullius, Australia

TERRA NULLIUS, Australia 

[2010-2013] 

Terra Nullius, from the Latin, describes a land without an owner. During the colonisation of Australia by the British, the principle of Terra Nullius was evoked in a bid to legitimise the continent’s invasion. On 28th April 1770, the British explorer James Cook declared the continent Terra Nullius. This declaration paved the way for the creation of a new penal colony: between 1788 and 1868, 165.000 British convicts were sent to this new continent by boat. Over two centuries later, in 1992, the High Court of Australia declared the country never to have been Terra Nullius and retroactively invalidated this principle following a fierce battle for the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. In 2012, Australia has a population of over 24 million inhabitants. The big majority of Australia’s population lives on the continent’s periphery in large cities. Nevertheless,about ten percent of Australians call the centre of the country home, otherwise known as the Bush and the Outback, an area which covers over two thirds of the territory.The following photographic essay was undertaken in the state of Northern Territory and News South Wales. In response to the great isolation experienced by part of the population, Reverend John Flynn founded in 1928 the Flying Doctors to deliver by plane medical assistance to the inhabitants of remote stations.In 1944 the School of Air is born, the radio suddenly enabling isolated children to continue their education remotely. Today still, children don’t go to school, school comes to them via skype. I crossed paths with many people who shared a fragment of their lives with me,a grain of sand from their desert. Rugged and magnificent, violent and luminous, this savage landscape and the people who live within it; a story of personal adaptation.