‘We were just little boys’ exhibition opens at CCP on 30 August

One of the images from the new exhibition ‘We were just little boys’, which will open at the Centre for Contemporary Photography on 30 August. (Source: CCP.)

In 2023, Tace Stevens was commissioned by the Magnum Foundation and World Monuments Fund, to work with the Survivors of the Kinchela Aboriginals Boys Training Home (KBH), to create a body of work that shone a light on the site, and the truth. This body of work, We Were Just Little Boys, is a series of juxtapositions. Lies and truth. Past and present. Little boys and old men. When the site was active, photos of the Kinchela Boys were constantly used as propaganda to show Australia that Kinchela was a good place and achieving what it had set out to do – “turning out clean and healthy boys, who will develop into useful citizens,” as written by the Macleay Argus in 1943. The Uncles didn’t have any autonomy, voice, or power when they were at Kinchela. This body of work is a reclamation of their truth. People today have mixed information about the Stolen Generations. Some believe it didn’t happen, others think it was a good thing, while some believe it happened many generations ago. Within this series, the Uncles confront the camera, and by extension, us, to share their truth.

Tace Stevens is a Noongar and Spinifex visual storyteller based in Perth, Western Australia. She is a self-taught documentary photographer with a film degree from the Australian Film and Television Radio School. With a background in community development, story sovereignty and authenticity are integral to her practice. Click here for more information.