Stockman

An image from the series The Aak Puul Ngantam Stockman.
APN Cape York (Aak Puul Ngantam) is an indigenous cattle enterprise based on remote Cape York Peninsula in Australia’s far north — an attempt to provide sustainable employment and a sense of pride in the indigenous population. They are mustering wild stock — left after a failed venture decades ago — by horseback, quad bike and helicopter.
I photographed the entire APN team at their remote camp as they returned exhausted from a day of mustering and fence building. The subject of this image, Dominic Ngakyunkwokka, is one of the young indigenous stockman learning the trade from the experienced traditional elders. Dominic is pleased to be offered the opportunity for gainful employment and to escape the township of Aurukun where opportunities are non-existent and drugs, booze and violence is endemic.”