Dylan Mooney b1995 Yuwi/ Meriam/ Mir/ South Sea Islander
.... a 12-metre-tall mural at the White Bay Power Station, a tribute to Malcolm Cole, the dancer and activist who in 1988 led the first Indigenous float at Mardi Gras. ... thesaturdaypaper.com.au
... dressed in drag as a black Captain Cook , who was hauled down the street by a group of white convicts. ...
... with a dancer's grace, Cole trod a path first marked out by the ancestors who preceded him. ...
Richard Mockler abc.net.au
When Malcolm marched in 1988, attitudes were different.
Homosexuality was far less accepted than it is today, the HIV epidemic was raging and an apology to Indigenous Australians from a prime minister was 20 years away.
Sydney was busy preparing its bicentenary celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the First Fleet arriving at Botany Bay.
On January 26, 11 tall ships arrived in Sydney after retracing the original convict voyage from the United Kingdom. Performances of British expeditions were staged in period costumes across the city.
Prince Charles addressed the nation on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
While that was happening thousands of Indigenous people travelled to Sydney to protest the celebrations, and Malcolm was brainstorming ideas for a float.
Panos Couros was a young gay man who took part in the protest and later met Malcolm at a Mardi Gras workshop.
Together they came up with the concept for the float.
On a tall ship, pulled by a group of white people, Malcolm would dress as Captain Cook, the British explorer who claimed New South Wales for the British Crown in 1770.
Narungga and Kaurna man Rodney Junga-Williams would dress as Sir Joseph Banks, a botanist who arrived in Australia with Captain Cook and who was key in justifying the legal dispossession of First Nations people from their land.
Panos stepped back from marching with the float and filmed the moment.
