Lucien: Hi! My name is Lucien and I'm part of the Education team at the National Archives of Australia.

An archive is a place where records are kept. The National Archives of Australia keeps records created by the Australian Government, from 1901 to today. There are around 42 million records in our collection, including letters, maps, forms, photos, and videos.

Every record in our collection tells a story. Today, we are going to explore how one Australian artist was inspired to use some of these records in creating art with a message.

[This presentation is brought to you from Ngunnawal and Ngambri country, and I would first like to acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. Many of you will be watching this in the lands of other traditional custodians and I would like to pay my respects to the Elders of those communities also.]

Peter Drew is an Australian artist from Adelaide, South Australia. He is well known for his ‘Aussie' poster series, which he has pasted up on walls in public spaces all around the country.

Peter uses a screen-printing technique to create the posters. He reproduces black and white photographs from the national archival collection, updating them with some colour. Peter adds one word, ‘Aussie', to the bottom of each poster.

The black and white photographs were taken in Australia during the White Australia Policy. One part of this policy was the use of a dictation test designed to prevent non-white people from migrating to Australia. The test was enforced between 1901 and 1958. It was so difficult that between 1909 and 1958 not a single person passed the test.

Non-white Australians who wished to travel overseas had to apply for a ‘Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test' (or ‘CEDT') – otherwise they would have to take the dictation test on their return to Australia, knowing that they would almost certainly not be able to pass it and be deported from their home.

The portraits that feature in Peter Drew's posters are all of individuals who applied for an exemption. In many cases thumb prints and hand prints were also taken to prove their identity.

Peter Drew: I started with the portrait of Monga Khan and that was in 2016, after the ISIS videos that were coming out and the Lindt Café siege. There was a real anti-Islamic sentiment and so I wanted to find a man who was visibly a Muslim, and heroic. And so when I found the image of Monga Khan I thought that's him. He looked like someone who you'd want to be. Sort of regal and heroic and all the things that make you want to identify with him.

There is also so much sorrow and heartbreak in so many of the images and so that led me to go back to the archive and show people who looked less heroic and who really evoke empathy and a sense of introspection of why did Australia allow this to happen. Especially the children. The idea that these people were seen as a threat and had to identify themselves and have special exemption papers because of their perceived race is absurd and there's sort of a sense of absurdity that comes out of it, when you see how young and vulnerable they are.

I think the very first thing and the main thing that I want people to take out of the posters from seeing them on the street is that immediate hit of curiosity, of ‘Who is that person?”. Because the poster doesn't really provide an answer and that's quite strategic because if you're walking down the street or driving your car and you see a poster that says ‘Aussie' and it doesn't look like the typical idea of what an ‘Aussie' looks like, it's sort of jarring, you go ‘What?' It conflicts with our assumptions around that word ‘Aussie'. And there isn't an explanation so you're left with a big question mark in your head, ‘well who is that person?' and then you're motivated to find out or at least speak to one other person about it.

I think the obvious thing that I should say about what thoughts or feelings I hope people have when they see the posters is that it makes them consider the assumptions around what it means to be an ‘Aussie'. Because we all have these assumptions about ethnic or racial assumptions around what ‘Aussie' means and I find that this is even true with people who have recently migrated to Australia. It takes them some time to feel that they belong and that they are included within that.

Lucien: Thank you for joining me today. I wonder, what does the word ‘Aussie' mean to you? How have Australia attitudes and values changed since these black and white photographs were taken? And how will Australian society continue to change into the future? If you want to find more stories in the National Archives, you can go to our website at naa.gov.au. Thanks everyone, and have a great day!

Peter Drew admits that he pastes his posters up in public spaces illegally. Although he has received fines in SA, the ACT and NSW for his street art, most of the time he has not been punished for the thousands of posters he has put up around Australia.

Use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Peter Drew's 'Aussie' posters with graffiti. Then, discuss why you think his posters are generally more accepted by law enforcement than graffiti – and whether or not this is fair.

Our Making a Difference with Crochet classroom resource teaches you more about yarn-bombing, which is another form of street art. You will learn how Eloise Murphy, aka 'Treble Maker', used yarn-bombing to campaign for marriage equality in 2017.

The photographs in Peter Drew's 'Aussie' posters were originally used in applications for CEDTs (Certificates of exemption to the dictation test) that were required under the White Australia Policy.

Although the CEDT photographs used in the Aussie posters were originally taken because of a racist government policy, today they provide us with a record of cultural and racial diversity in Australia since Federation. The 'Aussie' posters can be viewed as a celebration of that diversity.

Celebrate the diversity in your classroom by creating a class set of 'Aussie' posters. Take a selfie as your base image, then borrow design elements from the original 'Aussie' posters to communicate your sense of personal and national identity. To get started, you can use the activity sheet and poster template on Peter Drew's website.

Use RecordSearch to access digitised copies of the Certificates of Exemption from the Dictation Test (CEDT) for some of the subjects of Peter Drew's Aussie posters.

Look up Monga Khan, Dorothy Sym Choon or Ackbar Khan. To do this you can:

• Go to 'Basic Search' on RecordSearch
• Enter their full name into 'keywords'
• Where there is more than one result, look for 'CEDT' in the item title
• Click on the digitised item icon to view the record.

From viewing the subject's CEDT, you may like to find out:

• Their occupation and place of residence
• Where they were travelling to and how they got there
• The kind of language (word choices) used in the personal references to describe them
• Any other interesting facts you come across.

As a class, reflect on what you have discovered. What similarities and differences are there between the lives of Monga Khan, Dorothy Sym Choon or Ackbar Khan?