Frank Hogan, one of the many Anangu ‘Spinifex People’ photographed as part of the Tjuntjuntara archive. Used with permission.
The Story of the Spinifex People
Between 2010 and 2018, Ali MC visited the remote Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjatjara lands in the Western Desert region of Australia.
Decades prior, his grandfather – Robert McKeich – had lived and worked as a teacher and missionary in the same region.
During his four decades in the desert, Robert took thousands photographs, some of which even depicted ‘first contact’ between white people and the Anangu (Indigenous) ‘Spinifex People.’
While working in the desert as a music producer, Ali MC was able to connect with family members and people featured in his grandfather’s photographs and eventually returned the collection to the families who now reside in the remote community of Tjuntjuntjara.
The treasured photographs are now held within the community archive and names are being put to the faces of family members from long ago.
And most recently, some of the original black and white photographs were used in an art history book of the Spinifex People titled Sun and Shadow, produced by the South Australian Museum.
Ali MC working with elders in Tjuntjuntjara remote community to identify family members in his grandfather’s collection of photographs.