The Mission: 2012

Michael Cook

1 Jan - 31 Dec 2012

This series from Michael Cook entitled The Mission is a 10-part photographic suite that narrates the journey of an Aboriginal woman from her homeland to life on an Aboriginal mission.

Through the series of ten works, we view the journey of an indigenous woman from her home to the mission, and are witness to the changes that are wrought. Set up as a sort of terrifying institutional bulwark against genocidal colonization, the missions were state administered locations of supposed safety and support for Aboriginals. The missions themselves echo the power dynamics at play in Cook’s work; exterior forces model and remake as they feel, squeezing culture and identity into policy and historical narrative. Shae Nagorcka