News ArticlesOpening the Common Gate: marking 40 years of Indigenous Citizenship Friday, September 14,
2007
Mr
Peter Yu and Mrs Sarah Yu An exhibition illustrating a little known story of resilience and dignity in the face of an era of formalised discrimination was launched today at the Western Australian Museum – Perth. The exhibition, Opening the Common Gate, takes its title from a wire fence that ran along the municipal boundary of the Kimberley township of Broome. Initially erected to keep the cattle out of the township, the fence became a convenient physical boundary to regulate the entry of Aboriginal people without work permits, and enforce the exclusion of those classified as ‘natives in law’. Opening the Common Gate was created in Broome to mark the fortieth anniversary of the1967 Referendum which began an era of significant change for Indigenous Australians. The exhibition has been on show at the University of Notre Dame’s Broome campus and the Western Australian Museum agreed to assist its creators to bring it to Perth. WA Museum CEO Dr Dawn Casey said today that Opening the Common Gate illustrated an extraordinary story. “The people whose stories are at the heart of this exhibition give us a rare insight of a time when they were struggling to be recognised as human beings, much less citizens of their country,” she said. “This was an age in Australia when Indigenous people were told where they could live, where they could travel and whom they could marry.” Through a series of panels and exclusive video footage, the exhibition expresses the stories of more than ten people who have delved deep into their personal experience to offer vivid and graphic living history. Dr Casey said that Opening the Common Gate celebrated the tenacity, humour and strength of the storytellers and offered a fascinating insight into part of the vibrant history of Broome through their words, letters, photographs and archives. Open to the public, this free exhibition can be viewed at the Katta Djinoong Gallery at the Western Australian Museum – Perth until December this year.
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