With the series ‘My Uncle’s Murder’ 2008, William Yang travels back to his home town of Dimbulah, Queensland, to understand a painful event in his family’s history. In 1922, his uncle William Fang Yuen, the owner of a sugar cane plantation, was shot by one of his employees, the farm manager. The dispute was regarding the weight of cane going to the mill. The manager, Peter Danelchenko, who was white, went to trial, but received no punishment for his crime.

While this story is deeply personal, Yang consciously revisits Australia’s broader historical narrative, which has often overlooked stories of marginal communities and injustices born of racial prejudice. Fang Yuen’s murder – and the lack of action taken by the authorities – led to Yang’s parents actively suppressing their Chinese heritage. It was not until the artist was in primary school that he even realised he was of Chinese–Australian descent.

As part of the process of discovering and celebrating his Chinese heritage, Yang travelled throughout regional and urban Australia, documenting the lives of contemporary Chinese–Australians. Yang also photographed the landscapes that retained the strong legacy of Chinese activity, such as long-standing religious shrines and the once-profitable mines that benefited from Chinese labour.

Feature image: Works from William Yang’s ‘My uncle’s murder’ series 2003, installed for ‘Seeing and Being Seen’, QAG, April 2021 / © William Yang / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA