South Australian Museum - North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Portraits of Aboriginal Australians by Richard Lyons

In 2011 Richard Lyons was commissioned to photograph a group of Aboriginal Australians for the Give up smokes for good campaign, an initiative of SA Health.

The portraits captured the inner strength of some of Australia's greatest Aboriginal role models. The striking photographs visually conveyed a message of pride and defiance, the preparedness of the individuals to simply be themselves.

The campaign organisers recognised the power in these portraits, and sought other avenues to share their strong messages about contemporary Aboriginal role models.

Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia (DASSA) approached the South Australian Museum with the idea of exhibiting the portraits in the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery. The museum welcomed the opportunity to display them and felt the exhibition would sit comfortably as a bookend to the wall of historic portraits that welcomes visitors to the gallery.

The photographs have formed a calendar promoting the benefits of quitting smoking, and the exhibition title comes from one of the messages in SA Health's social marketing campaign: 'Our culture burns brightly without cigarettes'.

Our Culture Burns Brightly is an exhibition based on an initiative of SA Health, Drug & Alcohol Services South Australia.

Image above: Shania Miller, school student and rising sports star. Photo by Richard Lyons, 2011.