Renowned photographer and videographer Hugh Sando is directing a new documentary that will chart the rich and intriguing process of the Place Names Melville project. He tells Nina Levy why this film is so close to his heart.

Looking at Whadjuk Noongar man Hugh Sando’s evocative photography and videography it’s hard to imagine that he ever considered a career outside the arts.

Raised in Carnarvon, Sando attended Wesley College in Perth from the age of 12 and enrolled in an engineering degree after he graduated.

“I think what drew me to engineering was that at school I found [the subject] quite creative and there was a lot more problem solving involved,” says Sando. “This wasn’t the case at university.

“So I took a gap year to try and work out what I wanted to do with my life and stumbled across photography during that period. At first I was absolutely horrible at it but thankfully I was also passionate about it. When I'm passionate about something I enjoy the learning process."

Incredibly, that learning process took place entirely via YouTube videos, and just a year later the self-taught photographer secured an Indigenous Operations Traineeship at the ABC. Five years later Sando has expanded his practice into photojournalism, cinematography and directing, and is regarded by the ABC’s Landline team as “one of the best cinematographers in the WA branch”. 
 

It was through the ABC that Sando connected with Community Arts Network, taking portraits of the 10 Elders whose stories were told in Ngaluk Waangkiny. Supported by the ABC, Ngaluk Waangkiny (Us Talking), is a landmark multimedia storytelling project that honours and preserves the legacy of Elders, documented via a book, podcast and film.

“Ngaluk Waangkiny is an incredible documentary, that’s really close to home, considering the history that my family on my Indigenous side have been through,” says Sando. “I couldn’t have had a better introduction to CAN.”

Sando then worked with CAN, Moodjar and the City of Melville on the first phase of Place Names Melville, a project that uncovers and decodes the original meanings of Noongar placenames in the City of Melville, and harnesses contemporary art-forms to celebrate Noongar language, heritage and culture. In this project Sando mentored participants through the process of recording natural soundscapes and sensory videos.

When CAN, City of Melville and Moodjar decided to make a longitudinal documentary about the Place Names Melville project, Sando was the obvious choice to direct the film.

“I want the doco to be a piece of content that illustrates what is possible with First Nations peoples – not just First Nations Australians, but First Nations people worldwide – what that process can look like and how effective it can be, and what sort of impact it can have not only for the First Nations people but also people from every culture that are now living on that land.

“I want viewers to see that they can have a deeper sense of the heritage and culture associated with the places that they're living on, that they're working on. I want it to be a film that makes people reflect on what's come before them and gives them a closer connection to Country.”

Top: A detail of one of Hugh Sando's photographs, from Touching Boodja, the launch event for phase II of Place Names Melville // credit Hugh Sando