Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that the following contains the name of someone who has died. The following also contains historic language which may cause offense.

Freedom Rides by Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang artist Richard Bell was recently acquired for Parliament House Art Collections. The painting depicts one of Australia’s most significant activist movements, the 1965 ‘Freedom Ride’.

In 1965, a group of University of Sydney students, from the newly formed Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA), travelled by bus for 15 days throughout regional New South Wales. They did this to draw national and international attention to the racism, marginalisation, and poor living conditions to which Aboriginal people were subjected. This included directly challenging local rules that barred Aboriginal children from swimming pools in Moree and Kempsey and barred Aboriginal ex-servicemen from a Returned Service League (RSL) in Walgett.¹

Over the 15 days they travelled through Wiradjuri, Kawambarai, Gumbaynggirr, Gamilaraay, Bundjalung, Dhan-gadi, Ngaku and Ngumbar Country.²

Charles Perkins AO, one of only two Aboriginal students at the university at the time, was the elected president of SAFA. He says that:

It was also a reaction to what was being done in America at that time. A number of students gathered together at Sydney University and thought that they might like to see a Freedom Ride eventuate here in Australia. They all put their sixpence-worth in, saying what should happen and what should not happen.³

The ride had significant impact, particularly internationally, and is considered to have strengthened the many protest and political campaigns for Aboriginal civil rights that followed it. In Freedom Rides Richard Bell recreates a famous photograph of the bus the students drove across New South Wales and reflects on the ongoing influence of this historic action.

Richard Bell
Born in Charleville, Queensland in 1953, Richard Bell is a Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang artist. His work expresses his lifelong political activism, bringing attention to the continuing impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people and advocating for social justice, self-determination, land rights, and sovereignty.⁴ Bell won the National Telstra Indigenous Art Award in 2003 and was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2004. His work is held in all major Australian collections. He has exhibited in more than 30 solo exhibitions and more than 100 group shows in Australia and internationally, including numerous major Biennale and Triennale art events. With Vernon Ah Kee and Jennifer Herd, Bell founded Queensland’s leading Indigenous arts collective proppaNOW in 2004.⁵

References
1. AIATSIS, "1965 Freedom Ride", accessed August 13, 2025, https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/1965-freedom-ride
2. Melbourne Law School, "Student Freedom Riders", accessed August 13, 2025, https://law.unimelb.edu.au/iljh/research/mls-classroom-photo-mural-initiative/classroom-photos/student-freedom-riders
3. ibid.
4. Reilly, Maura, "Speaking Truth to Power", You Can Go Now (MCA, 2021), p.33.
5. Bullen, Clothilde, "Introduction", You Can Go Now (MCA, 2021), p.16.