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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/05/in-a-world-where-everyone-talks-and-no-one-listens-a-good-photo-can-make-us-stop
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| In a world where everyone talks and no one listens, a good photo can make us stop | In a world where everyone talks and no one listens, a good photo can make us stop |
| (3 months later) | |
| My name is LaVonne Bobongie. My people are the Olkola people on my dad’s side as well as South Sea Islander and Scottish, my mum is Fijian and Chinese. I tell stories through photos. | My name is LaVonne Bobongie. My people are the Olkola people on my dad’s side as well as South Sea Islander and Scottish, my mum is Fijian and Chinese. I tell stories through photos. |
| I’ve loved photos as long as I can remember; we always had a camera in our house growing up. When I was a teenager, the back of my door was covered with photos – new and old. I love that they freeze time. They tell a story about an exact moment in an exact place. They have the power to connect people because they can relate to an image or because it is so different and far from their lives. Either way it speaks to them. A good photo can make people stop in a world that’s full of noise where everyone is talking and no one is really listening to each other. | I’ve loved photos as long as I can remember; we always had a camera in our house growing up. When I was a teenager, the back of my door was covered with photos – new and old. I love that they freeze time. They tell a story about an exact moment in an exact place. They have the power to connect people because they can relate to an image or because it is so different and far from their lives. Either way it speaks to them. A good photo can make people stop in a world that’s full of noise where everyone is talking and no one is really listening to each other. |
| Australian Life photo competition – in pictures | |
| I believe photos have the power to change the landscape of our country. In images, we hold the tools to tell our own stories, with our own voices, in our own way. With that comes freedom. Freedom to express ourselves, to learn about what we want, to really see each other as well as to truly see ourselves. | I believe photos have the power to change the landscape of our country. In images, we hold the tools to tell our own stories, with our own voices, in our own way. With that comes freedom. Freedom to express ourselves, to learn about what we want, to really see each other as well as to truly see ourselves. |
| I work with some amazing young people through Digi Youth Arts and the Deadly Ways program at the University of Southern Queensland, and I always tell them that words are important. The words we say to others, the words we allow others to say to us, the words we don’t say, but most importantly the words we say to ourselves. The story that we are always writing – our story. | I work with some amazing young people through Digi Youth Arts and the Deadly Ways program at the University of Southern Queensland, and I always tell them that words are important. The words we say to others, the words we allow others to say to us, the words we don’t say, but most importantly the words we say to ourselves. The story that we are always writing – our story. |
| In the Deadly Ways program I facilitate a workshop where our young people write a message on a blackboard, then we take a photo of it, print it out, and they keep it. They get to choose what they write. Either what career they want to pursue if they know but also who they want to be, what traits they see in others around them that they love and look up to and want to emulate. It’s a goal and a promise that they’re making to themselves that, in this moment, this is what they are aiming for. It’s always interesting watching their response to having to write their dreams in front of others, let alone see and accept the photo once it’s in their hands. Some can’t look at it and turn it over, some tuck it away to look at later, some proudly show everyone. It’s a vulnerable feeling being really seen. Sharing with the world your dreams and who you are. I’m not gonna lie, writing this article for me is a daunting experience. But it’s in the uncomfortable and awkward spaces that we are stretched and we grow. I’ve always found that in the silent spaces between people and experiences I’ve felt most connected, where what I was meant to learn stood out. | In the Deadly Ways program I facilitate a workshop where our young people write a message on a blackboard, then we take a photo of it, print it out, and they keep it. They get to choose what they write. Either what career they want to pursue if they know but also who they want to be, what traits they see in others around them that they love and look up to and want to emulate. It’s a goal and a promise that they’re making to themselves that, in this moment, this is what they are aiming for. It’s always interesting watching their response to having to write their dreams in front of others, let alone see and accept the photo once it’s in their hands. Some can’t look at it and turn it over, some tuck it away to look at later, some proudly show everyone. It’s a vulnerable feeling being really seen. Sharing with the world your dreams and who you are. I’m not gonna lie, writing this article for me is a daunting experience. But it’s in the uncomfortable and awkward spaces that we are stretched and we grow. I’ve always found that in the silent spaces between people and experiences I’ve felt most connected, where what I was meant to learn stood out. |
| Because sometimes we can feel so lost. With my family, we only found out who our people were about eight years ago. My dad searched his whole life and became an anthropologist in pursuit of finding our truth. On his mum’s side his grandmother Ada was stolen from Strathleven Station on the Palmer River and taken to Yarrabah Mission, and on his dad’s side his grandad was blackbirded/stolen and forced into slavery from the Solomon Islands to work on the cane fields in Queensland. So I grew up knowing exactly who I was on my mum’s side and feeling lost and unsure about who I was on my dad’s side. At the same time I had specific roles and responsibilities on both sides. Finding that connection helped to ground me. Knowing who you are grounds you. Learning who the people around you are and their story enriches and fills a lifetime. | Because sometimes we can feel so lost. With my family, we only found out who our people were about eight years ago. My dad searched his whole life and became an anthropologist in pursuit of finding our truth. On his mum’s side his grandmother Ada was stolen from Strathleven Station on the Palmer River and taken to Yarrabah Mission, and on his dad’s side his grandad was blackbirded/stolen and forced into slavery from the Solomon Islands to work on the cane fields in Queensland. So I grew up knowing exactly who I was on my mum’s side and feeling lost and unsure about who I was on my dad’s side. At the same time I had specific roles and responsibilities on both sides. Finding that connection helped to ground me. Knowing who you are grounds you. Learning who the people around you are and their story enriches and fills a lifetime. |
| Marching together: world’s Indigenous peoples day in Sydney – in pictures | |
| So here’s my challenge to you and to myself. Go take photos. Photos of what you’re doing, of who you’re with. Photos of your family, of people and things that make you happy. But more than that, take time to stop and really pay attention. Sit with someone and hear their story. Sit in the silence and the awkwardness. Take in everything that is going on around you. Really see. And be seen. Be kind. Be vulnerable. Love deeply and fiercely. Hope always. Because like I tell our young people you are your ancestors’ wildest dreams. You are what they fought so hard for. Everything has been passed down to you by those who came before you, so be proud of it. You have a purpose and a calling and a story that only you can tell, and there is so much beauty in that. | So here’s my challenge to you and to myself. Go take photos. Photos of what you’re doing, of who you’re with. Photos of your family, of people and things that make you happy. But more than that, take time to stop and really pay attention. Sit with someone and hear their story. Sit in the silence and the awkwardness. Take in everything that is going on around you. Really see. And be seen. Be kind. Be vulnerable. Love deeply and fiercely. Hope always. Because like I tell our young people you are your ancestors’ wildest dreams. You are what they fought so hard for. Everything has been passed down to you by those who came before you, so be proud of it. You have a purpose and a calling and a story that only you can tell, and there is so much beauty in that. |
| • Guardian Australia is proud to partner with IndigenousX to showcase the diversity of Indigenous peoples and opinions from around the country. | • Guardian Australia is proud to partner with IndigenousX to showcase the diversity of Indigenous peoples and opinions from around the country. |
| • Comments on this article have been pre-moderated to ensure the discussion is on the topics that have been written about in the article. | • Comments on this article have been pre-moderated to ensure the discussion is on the topics that have been written about in the article. |
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