Bill Onus and Aboriginal Enterprises
Interpretive signage along the Activism theme
Bill Onus and Aboriginal Enterprises
“A souvenir business selling Aboriginal boomerangs and other paraphernalia in the 1950s may seem like a strange place to launch political campaigns from, but it was the work of artists like my grandfather Bill Onus and others that humanised Aboriginal people within a broader Australian consciousness, which helped create bridges that allowed Australia to engage from a place of strength with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.”
– Tiriki Onus, Generational Guests, 2023
From 1952 to around 1968, 63 Monbulk Road, Belgrave, was the site of Aboriginal Enterprises, an Aboriginal souvenir shop and factory owned and run by Yorta Yorta activist and artist William ‘Bill’ Onus. This shop became internationally renowned for its designs and artefacts and as a tourist attraction. But importantly, it was also a cultural hub for Aboriginal people and a meeting point for Black civil rights activists.
Bill’s grandson, Tiriki, describes its significance:
“This little shop became a place where movie stars, famous musicians and great activists would come congregate … people like famous Calypso singer, Harry Belafonte, learning to throw boomerangs out the front … and great activists of the day like Pastor Doug Nicholls and Aunty Gladys Nicholls. It is a place which connects not just Black Activists from across oceans, but it connects creatives together, and that has been so much of the power of this place.”