Michael Aird | FireWorks Gallery

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Selected works

FW23392 "the evidence is long gone"...	FW23393 Alick Landers carving echidna...	FW23394 Shannon Best at Natural Arch...
FW23395 Arthur Peterson...	FW23396 Bi-centennial protest gathering...	FW23397 Gerry Connelly...

Bio

For 40 years Michael Aird has worked in the area of Aboriginal arts and history. Photography has played an important role in his work and as a result he has accumulated an extensive archive of images. These photographs show ordinary aspects of Queensland Indigenous culture and resilience. They explore how documentary photography can offer insights into ongoing resistance to colonialism and repression, demonstrating resilience and continuities of First Nations life in Australia.

Courtesy of the Artist 2026

Story/Statement

Everybody is Important

Photographs by Michael Aird

For more than 30 years I have been working in the area of Aboriginal arts and history. Photography has played an important role in the work that I have done and as result I have accumulated an extensive archive of images. Many of the photographs I have taken are of Aboriginal people in situations that not only reflect their achievements but more importantly they simply document mundane aspects life.

The Everybody is Important Series were first included in an exhibition in response to the Australian Government’s 2007 ‘Intervention’ into Aboriginal societies in northern and central Australia, and the associated demonisation of Aboriginal men as criminals, alcoholics and violent pedophiles. In response to the ‘Intervention’ Djon Mundine curated an exhibition titled Cold Eels and Distant Thoughts, this exhibition presented images of Aboriginal men captured by Aboriginal male photographers.

In the 2015 Up Close exhibition I have expanded upon the original Everybody is Important Series and included women and some photos of non-Aboriginal people. The main focus in these images are of people from Queensland, but there a few exceptions with a few people from interstate and overseas also being included.

My photographs are often in contrast to the images portrayed by the mainstream media, such as images of Aborigines as victims in hopeless situations. These photographs demonstrate just some of the people that I have known over my life. Everybody has a story worth telling and I have selected people who I think are important and who have stories that are equally as important as the stories from the select few ‘elders’ and ‘leaders’ that are favoured by the government and the mainstream media.

Courtesy of Michael Aird 2015

MICHAEL AIRD

Born: 1963, Southport, QLD.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology) University of Queensland

EXHIBITIONS

2025 Snap Blak Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island photography, QAGOMA, Brisbane

2021-2022 Refocused Lens: Viewpoints, Contemporary Aboriginal Photography, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane

2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture: Late 19^th Century to the present, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns

2017 Resolution: New Indigenous Photomedia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

2015 Up Close: Juno Gemes, Michael Aird and Jo-Anne Driessens, Fireworks Gallery, Newstead

2014 Up Close: Juno Gemes and Michael Aird, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

2013 I Still Call Australia Home, Gallery of Modern Art, South Brisbane

2013 Swamp Country, Kick Off: Contemporary Video Art Program, Metricon Stadium, Carrara

2011 Cold Eels and Distant Thoughts, University Gallery, University of Newcastle, (travelled to Monash Gallery of Art, 2012)

2011 Woogoompah: My Country-Swamp Country, Gold Coast Art Gallery

2010 Interventions: Experiments between Art and Ethnography, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney

2008 More Than My Skin, Campbelltown Art Gallery, Campbelltown, 2008 (travelled to Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine in 2009 and Lismore in 2010)

1998 Wearing Culture; Images and Objects from an Artists Meeting, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane

1990 Balance 1990, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane

EXHIBITIONS CURATED

2026 Shields: Design and Functionality, UQ Anthropology Museum, Brisbane

2024 Voices of Our Elders: Aboriginal Story Tellers, UQ Anthropology Museum, Brisbane

2022 Camps, Cottages and Homes, UQ Anthropology Museum, Brisbane

2019 Palm Trees and Tropical Sunsets: The Inspection Tour of Aboriginal Stations in North Queensland 1931, UQ Anthropology Museum, (Co-curated with Lindy Allan)

2018 Yerrabilela: Talking about songs, UQ Anthropology Museum, Brisbane

2017 From Relics to Rights: Aboriginal people and Anthropology at The University of Queensland, UQ Anthropology Museum, Brisbane

2015 This is my heritage, Queensland Museum, (Co-curated with Mandana Mapar), Brisbane

2015 Wild Australia: Meston’s Wild Australia 1892-1893, University of Queensland Anthropology Museum (Co-curated with Mandana Mapar and Paul Memmott), Brisbane

2014 Saltwater Country, Gold Coast City Gallery, (Co-curated with Virginia Rigney), Gold Coast

2014 Captured: Early Brisbane photographers and their Aboriginal subjects, Museum of Brisbane

2013 Object of The Story-Reflections on Place, at the Northern Rivers Regional Gallery, Ballina, (Co-curated with Mandana Mapar)

2013 The River: A History of Brisbane, Exhibition at Museum of Brisbane, (curated section of larger exhibition), Brisbane

2013 Growing Up Catholic, North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum, (Co-curated with Mandana Mapar), North Stradbroke

2012 Transforming Tindale, State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane

2012 The Longest Wave, The Bleach Festival, Kirra Hill Community Gallery

2011 Their Story With Our Story, Mercy Heritage Centre, Brisbane

2008 History of Entertainment and Broadcasting in Cherbourg, Cherbourg

2007 Dormitory Exhibition, Ration Shed Museum, Cherbourg

2006 Gunngah Binnung, Tweed Shire Council, Murwillumbah

2006 Little Stir, Fuss or Parade: History of Bakers Creek Reserve, Mackay Artspace, Mackay

2005 Brisbane Blacks Photographic Exhibition, Dreaming Festival, Woodford

2000 Aboriginal Gallery, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville

1999 Old Man Fog: Paintings by Tulo Gordon, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane

1998 Wearing Culture; Images and Objects from an Artists Meeting, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane

1997 Branching Out, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane

1995 Historical photographic exhibition, Couran Cove, South Stradbroke Island

1994 Indigenous Workers Exhibition, Workers Heritage Centre, Barcaldine

1991 Portraits of Our Elders, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane (travelled throughout Qld & NSW 1993 to 2000)

1990 Permanent photo exhibition, Royal Pines International Resort, Gold Coast

PUBLICATIONS

2025 Memmott, Paul, Nugent, Maria, Aird, Michael, Allen, Lindy, Knowles, Chantal and Richards, Jonathan, The Wild Australia Show: The Story of an Aboriginal Performance Troupe and its Afterlives, ANU Press, Canberra

2025 Aird, Michael, Allen, Lindy, Knowles, Chantal, Memmott, Paul, Nugent, Maria and Richards, Jonathan, Life stories: the Wild Australia Show (1892-1893), Reframing indigenous biography, (pp. 301-307) edited by Shino Konishi, Malcolm Allbrook and Tom Griffiths, Routledge, London

2024 Sherwood, Catherine, Aird, Michael, Phillips, Murray G. and Osmond, Gary, Sport, identity, and self‐determination: Aboriginal rugby league in Brisbane after the Second World War, In Australian Journal of Politics & History.

2024 The new protectionism: risk aversion and access to Indigenous heritage records, In Archives and Manuscripts

2023 Trusting the copies? Historical photographs and native title claims, In Archives and Records

2023 À propos de sept photographies d’Aborigénes du Queensland achetées par Désiré Charnay, In Mondes photographies, histories des débuts. (pp. 268-273) edited by Christine Barthe and Annabelle Lacour, Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac / Actes Sud, Paris

2022 Forward, In Kirrenderri: Heart of The Channel Country, (pp. 6-6) edited by Michael C. Westaway, Mandana Mapar, Tracey Hough, Shawnee Gorringe and Geoff Ginn, University of Queensland Anthropology Museum, St Lucia

2022 Through Mick's eyes, In Mick Richards above and below. (pp. 188-189) edited by Michael Aird, Kon Gouriotis and Melissa Pesa, Keeaira Press, Southport

2022 Mary-Ann of Ulmurra 1870-1873, In An Alternate History of Photography. (pp. 96-96) edited by Phillip Prodger, Prestel Publishing, Germany

2022 ‘The White-man calls me Jack’: the many names and claims for Jackey Jackey of the lower Logan River, south-east Queensland, Australia, In Aboriginal History Journal, 45 1, 3-32

2021 'Three boomerangs…shillling for each': linking objects and images from Moreton Bay. In Ancestors, artefacts, empire: Indigenous Australia in British and Irish museums. (pp. 233-241) edited by Gaye Sculthorpe, Maria Nugent and Howard Morphy, The British Museum Press, London

2021 Photographic identification of the troupe members of the Wild Australia Show. In Memoirs of the Queensland Museum-Culture, 12, 7-26

2020 Vale Laurie Nilsen. In Artist Profile

2020 Aird, Michael, Joanna Sassoon & David Trigger, From illustration to evidence: historical photographs and Aboriginal native title claims in south-east Queensland, Australia, In Anthropology & Photography, London

2019 The exotic: What people see…, In Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture: Late 19^th Century to the present (p. 73-76), Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns

2017 Gordon Hookey: another history, another reality, In Angela Goddard and Vivian Ziherl (Ed.), Gordon Hookey: summoning time - Painting & politikill transition in Murriland! (pp. 11-15), Griffith University, Brisbane

2016 The Frontier Image: What Just Keeps Representing Michael Aird and Gordon Hookey in conversation with Vivian Ziherl, In Frontier Imaginaries Edition No.1, edited by Vivian Ziherl, Institute of Modern Art and Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane

2015 Early Queensland Photographers and Their Aboriginal Subjects, in J. Annear (ed), The Photograph and Australia, pp. 52-53, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2015 Tactics of Survival: Images of Aboriginal Women and Domestic Service, in Colonization and Domestic Service: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Victoria K, Haskins and Claire Lowrie, pp. 182-190. Routledge, New York and London

2015 Aird, Michael, Mandana Mapar & Paul Memmott, Wild Australia: Meston’s Wild Australia 1892-1893, University of Queensland Anthropology Museum, St Lucia

2015 Aird, Michael and Virginia Rigney, Saltwater Country, City of Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

2015 My Story: South Stradbroke Island Artist Camp 2015, City of Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

2015 This is my heritage, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane

2015 Wild Australia: Meston’s Wild Australia 1892-1893, University of Queensland Anthropology Museum, St Lucia

2015 Aird, Michael, Jo-Anne Driessens and Juno Gemes. Up Close: Michael Aird, Jo- Anne Driessens and Juno Gemes, Keeaira Press, Southport

2014 Aird, Michael, Sullivan, Rodney and Barr, Todd. Within Reach, In The River: A History of Brisbane (pp. 100-101), Museum of Brisbane

2014 Aboriginal People and Four Early Brisbane Photographers, in Calling The Shots, edited by Jane Lydon, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra

2013 Object of The Story: Reflections on Place, Keeaira Press, Southport

2009 Equal Before the Lens, in Interventions: Experiments Between Art and Ethnography, edited by Jennifer Deger, Macquarie University Art Gallery

2007 Defining Who We Are, in Queensland – Sunshine State, edited by Djon Mundine, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown

2004 Design Concepts for the Interpretation of Indigenous Cultural Heritage with the Burnett River Dam Recreational Infrastructure. Unpublished report prepared for Burnett Water Pty Ltd

2004 Aird, Michael & Jenna Lamb. Draft Report: The Results of a Preliminary Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Survey of the Klienschmidt Property, Upper Coomera. Unpublished report for Stockland, submitted by Eastern Yugambeh Limited

2003, Growing Up With Aborigines, in Photography’s Other Histories, edited by Christopher Pinney & Nicolas Peterson, Duke University press, Durham

2002, Developments in the repatriation of human remains and other cultural items in Queensland, Australia. In The Dead and Their Possessions, Edited by Cressida Fforde, Jane Hubert & Paul Turnbull. Routledge

2001, Brisbane Blacks, Keeaira Press, Southport

1996, I Know a Few Words: Talking About Aboriginal Languages. Keeaira Press, Southport

1992, Portraits of Our Elders, Queensland Museum, Brisbane

1992 Aird. Michael. The Yugam Language: A Comparison of Word Lists, Unpublished report prepared for Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service

1992, Traditional Lifestyles and Recent History of South East Queensland Aborigines: A literature review, a report for Ngutana-Lui: The Aboriginal & Islander Cultural Studies Centre, Catholic Education Office, Brisbane, May 1992

1991, Dying Death, and the Mourning Process. in The Insitutue of American Indian Studies Bulletin, Summer/Fall 1991, edited by Leanard Bruguier, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota

1991 Hall, J & Michael Aird. An Archaeological Impact Assesment of The Proposed Clover Hill Resort Community Development, Mudgeeraba, S.E. Queensland. Unpublished report for Media Five Australia, Southport

1991 Aird, Michael. Aboriginal Cultural Resource Inventory: Tallebudgera Green Space. Unpublished report prepared for Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service

1987 Walters, Ian. Anna Nolan, Peter Lauer & Michael Aird. Hope Island: Salvage Excavation of a Kombumerri Site, in: Queensland Archaeological Research, 4: 80-95

1986 Aird, Michael, Mary Preston & Joe Miranda. An Aboriginal Site, in Brisbane South Region Multicultural Site Directory, Queensland Education Department, Brisbane

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Nomination of Kombumerri Park for Listing on the Register of the National Estate. Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Nomination of Coombabah Creek Shell Middens for Listing on the Register of the National Estate. Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Nomination of Tallebudgera Greenspace Shell Middens for Listing on the Register of the National Estate. Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Nomination of Jabreen Dreaming Place for Listing on the Register of the National Estate. Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Nomination of Jebbribillum Bora Ground for Listing on the Register of the National Estate. Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission

1986 Aird, Michael & Peter K. Lauer. Preliminary Excavation Report of a Shell Middenn Along the Banks of the Coomera River, Sanctuary Cove. Unpublished report for Mike Gore, Sanctuary Cove

AWARDS

2026 Australian Society of Archivists, Mander Jones Award

2022 Royal Anthopological Institute UK, Photographic Studies Award

2022 University of Queensland, Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Community

2020 Australian Society of Archivists, Mander Jones Award

2015 University of Queensland Alumni Award, Indigenous Community Impact

COLLECTIONS

National Gallery of Australia

State Library of Queensland

Queensland Museum

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