This compelling video work weaves together images from a large suite of black and white photographs made by James Henry in 2019. Celebrating the local mob known as ‘Parkies’, this intimate series of portraits is projected at a momentous scale onto a massive red brick wall in a small, but very popular, park just behind Smith Street in Collingwood.

Fitzroy, Collingwood and surrounding areas are historically significant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It is a meeting place; the cradle of Aboriginal affairs; the heart of social and political activism; the birthplace of important Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and organisations; and the place where many Stolen Generations found family for the first time.

People came to Fitzroy to connect with community, they gathered around Atherton Gardens, a place that came to be known as ‘the park’. Those who regularly occupied the parks came to refer to themselves as the ‘Parkies’. For a long time they have gathered in locations around Fitzroy and Collingwood. This is their meeting place; they come here to share what they have, to feel connected and to tell a story or play a song.

Parkies of Old Fitzroy by James Henry was part of the Yarra City Arts Peel Street Park Projection Program, from 26 May – 12 July, 2020

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