How this artist is reinventing the idea of an Aussie, one poster at a time

During anti-immigration marches in October, artist Peter Drew saw a protester rip one of his “Aussie” posters from a wall in Adelaide’s CBD – now he is reaching out to those on that side of the debate for his next project.

The distinctive posters, which have been plastered on walls around the country for the past decade, show Australians photographed in the early 1900s with the word Aussie in large type below their faces. Drew designed them to challenge ideas about what an Australian looks like.

Adelaide artist Peter Drew with his new series of “Aussie” posters.

The best-known features Monga Khan, an Afghan cameleer who wears a turban, but Drew is about to release posters featuring new faces. Among them are a Jewish boy who would later fight in World War II, as well as a grandparent of a politician.

The project’s next stage expands the initial concept, which Drew distils down to the idea “that brown people can be Australians”. He believes the word Aussie has been co-opted and wants to open up discussion about the idea.

The Adelaide-based artist created the series in 2016 in response to anti-immigration sentiment and xenophobia. ISIS was dominating headlines and the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege was fresh in the public memory, while the then Coalition government’s Stop The Boats campaign was still running strong and One Nation and Reclaim Australia were making waves.

The people featured in the Aussie posters were all subject to the White Australia Policy. Even though all were Australian citizens, many actually born here, people of colour had to seek exemptions to travel overseas. Anyone wanting to challenge the ban had to convince authorities as to why, and had their photo taken as part of the process. Drew found these individuals and their requests for exemption by trawling the National Archives of Australia.

A portrait of Lucy Maud Lem Cue is among the latest in Drew’s poster series.Credit: Peter Drew

All art projects evolve over time, Drew says, and he sees the posters as becoming “less subversive and more representative”. That means that in time the posters will also feature white faces. “It would be nice to see people of all backgrounds standing shoulder to shoulder,” he says.

Drew believes that many white Australians actually feel alienated from the word Aussie “because they struggle to reconcile the moral and ethical inconsistencies in Australia’s history”.

“And their desire to reimagine the word Aussie is as much about renewing their own sense of belonging as it is about offering that sense of belonging to immigrants,” he says. “The posters promise to reinvent the word Aussie, offering a renewed connection to that word and the community it implies.”

When Drew saw his work ripped down last month, it was the first time he had ever seen such an extreme reaction in person, though he does get some negative reaction online.

Conscious that social media can be an echo chamber, Drew has invited “people from the other side” – those who are anti-immigration – to contact him to explain why they believe what they do. He has promised to respond and engage in conversation, potentially to create art based on what he hears.

“A large part of the artwork is talking to people and explaining where I’m coming from and trying to help the other side not to see me in simplistic terms, not as someone who is shaking my finger at them and talking down to them,” Drew says. “I’ll be responding to that and trying to do it in a way that challenges my audience and reaches out to the other side a bit.

“If you can separate the racist people from those who have legitimate concerns about how immigration is affecting their life, I think then you can have a discussion that doesn’t demonise the immigrant.”

Khazoon Coory is featured on one of the latest Aussie posters.Credit: Peter Drew

Nuance and subtlety is often lost in discussions of these issues, Drew says. “It’s happening globally, with the centre being hollowed out, each side plays to their base.”

The Aussie posters are a project “that gives me a sense of meaning”, he says. Each January, he sends them to school teachers to use as tools, to help students explore issues of identity.

Many of the posters are held in galleries around the country, including the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of NSW.

Between the start of the project in 2016 and now, Drew and his wife, Julie White, have had two children. He will travel to put up the posters around the country in fits and bursts rather than being away from home for extended periods of time, starting in Adelaide, then moving on to Melbourne in January, and after that, Sydney and beyond.

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