As Australia’s first Indigenous press photographer, Mervyn Bishop told many others’ stories. Now the yarn is about him

The photographs snapped by Mervyn Bishop over the years are likely countless.

None, though, are perhaps so famous as his 1975 image of Gough Whitlam pouring red sand into the hands of Gurindji stockman Vincent Lingiari as portions of his land were returned to his people. From the archives: images of Australia by Mervyn Bishop – in pictures Read more

Bishop had been working for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs when he took the well-known frame, after having made his mark as Australia’s first Indigenous press photographer when he started at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963 aged 17.

But his passion for photography began years before landing his first gig at the paper.

Bishop recalls his mother, Marjorie, always carrying a little Kodak camera around with her when he was growing