Aden Ridgeway (b. 1962), Aboriginal rights advocate and former politician, is a Gumbayynggir man who joined the Australian Democrats in 1990. Elected to the Senate in the 1998 Federal election he was a senator for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005. During his stirring maiden speech, he spoke about the importance of reconciliation and recognition of Indigenous culture. Since leaving politics he has co-founded the social change agency, Cox Inall Ridgeway, and held roles with bodies including the Healing Foundation, the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, Recognise and Indigenous Voice.
On 25 October 2000, Mervyn Bishop photographed the State Funeral of Arrernte and Kalkadoon man and civil rights activist Kwementyaye Perkins AO (Dr Charles Nelson Perrurle Perkins AO) at Sydney Town Hall. Continuing Bishop's important documentation of Aboriginal social history, this image captures the then Australian Democrat senator Ridgeway as one of the pallbearers, the coffin draped in the Aboriginal flag. Former boxing champion Tony Mundine is behind Ridgeway and Hunter Valley Aboriginal Elder Bill Smith is in the foreground. Befitting the solemnity of the moment, the mood of the black-and-white photograph is sombre, with the focus on Ridgeway's face. Attended by thousands of mourners, Perkins' State Funeral was publicly broadcast outside the Town Hall and simulcast on national television.
Purchased 2001
© Mervyn Bishop
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