Sally Brownbill

Ross Calia finalist in HeadOn and the Brunswick Street Gallery Photographic prize.

– posted by Sally

This is Ross Calia's submission to this years HeadOn Portrait prize. He was a finalist with this image of Blue Joey in not only HeadOn 2012, but also the Brunswick Street Gallery photographic prize.

Blue Joey/Black Elvis: Gnarnayarrahe Inmurry Waitairie is an Aboriginal elder originally from Roebourne, Western Australia.

His name means ’A little blue joey, born beside a spring in the Dreamtime'. Taken away from his parents at the age of four, he was placed in a Church of Christ Home and renamed Trevor Phillips by missionaries, from which he escaped and was recaptured numerous times.

Upon arrival in Melbourne, one of Gnarnayarrahe's dreams was ‘to be an Aboriginal person who never loses his identity’. A performing artist, he also goes by the title of Black Elvis.