Acknowledgement of Country & Cultural Warning
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are advised that this website contains images, names, and voices of deceased persons.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands across Australia, where we create, gather, and share. We honour their enduring connections to Country, waters, kin, and stories, and recognise their continuous care of these relationships for over 65,000 years.
We pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present, and extend this respect to all First Nations community members. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
Original Tribes, Indigenous contemporary artwork in a class of its own, my artist is name is JDHampton I am a contemporary Indigenous artist with ancestral links to the Northern Territory and East Kimberley, my tribal family connection links to Marra (Borroloola), Ngalakan/ Milwaripra (Roper River) and Gurindji (Wavehill/ Inverway/ Mistake Creek) country of Australia. I also acknowledge family who went through the Stolen Generations (x 4 generations). And I also need to acknowledge my European and Afghan (cameleers) ancestral family heritage = hard workers. My Jaja (grandmother) is from Gurindji country, west of Kalkaringi, a remote community that was formally known as Wave Hill in the Northern Territory of Australia. My grandfather’s country is Roper River, Limmen Bight and down towards the McArthur River region of the Northern Territory, which includes Ngalakarn/ Milwaripra (Roper River), Mara (Borroloola) and Bundiyarng country.
Contemporary Indigenous Art | Stories for Country and Healing
I am a contemporary artist from the Northern Territory, weaving together traditional knowledge and cutting-edge new media art to honour Country, Elders, and the sacred stories they carry.
Through music, painting, photography, digital art, multimedia installations, and immersive technology, I explore:
Stories for Country – The living memory of Land and Ancestors
Australian Wildlife – As teachers, kin, and ecological guides
Healing Journeys – The intersection of art, culture, and wellbeing
My work is rooted in 65,000+ years of continuous culture, yet speaks through the lens of today – merging ancient patterns with augmented reality, sacred sites with 3D animation, and Songlines with interactive soundscapes.
Always creating on Aboriginal Land. Always listening to Elders past and present.
::: Inspired Story :::
My journey into Art and Fashion Designing, in 2016, while working as a Project Officer for the Strong Men, Strong Communities Program in Darwin, I discovered a passion for fashion design while creating custom polo shirts for local Aboriginal men’s groups. This experience inspired me to explore fashion as a business opportunity In 2017, I took the next step by applying for the Northern Territory Aboriginal Business Development Program, a supportive initiative for small Indigenous businesses. This program helped me develop my fashion design venture, marking the beginning of my creative entrepreneurial journey.
Since then, I’ve continued to grow my skills and business, embracing new opportunities every step of the way. I would like to briefly share my “INSPIRED STORY” for how I got into photography, because its good story…. One day about 30 years ago(around 1996), back in those good old days when we used to use 35mm film (Kodak, Fuji etc), I borrowed my step father flash SLR Pentax Camera that had a lot of camera buttons, I was always advised by him to just leave it in Auto. On this particular day I went out hunting for wild pigs near Marrakia country near Adelaide River in the Northern Territory of Australia with my uncle, its roughly about 80km south of Darwin, it was a hot and humid morning getting close to 11am. There was a small creek that flows into Adelaide River which had a small dam wall, made of tin, about 1.5 metre high and I went down to the water to wash my face and cool off a bit, the water, crystal clear and you can see the bottom no worries, as I walked to that water I seen wild boar sitting in that nice crystal clear water just on the right side of that small dam wall.
From the distance it looked like that pig was just sitting down and resting in the water and cooling off, minding his own business and taking it easy, and I sang out in quite voice to my uncle, “hey one pig sitting down near that dam wall”. My uncle got ready to shoot that boar with 30 – 30 Winchester Rifle and I said “hang on I want to get this camera ready for hunting photo” (and on this day I stuffed up and left the Pentax camera in Manual Camera Settings).
I used to put it on auto settings but on this day I felt brave and put it into manual settings, because I was getting a bit more confident with taking hunting photos. Just as my uncle was taking aim going to shoot that pig a great big saltwater crocodile jumped out of the water and it tried to jump up and over this small dam wall (made from tin iron) in the little creek were that wild boar was sitting in the water (no shots fired at pig or croc – that how quick and sudden this croc was). Big sudden fright, biggest splash and our tough fearless pig dogs took off flat out back to the 4WD, I tried to take photos of what was going on even thou I got frightened as well, maybe I got 5 or 6 fast photos. And that big saltwater crocodile jumped up and out of the water towards this small dam wall, he wanted to go into the deeper side, he must of sensed us around or something, when that croc jumped up he timed it wrong with the dam wall and went arse up back into the shallow side of the water. Then he jumped up again towards that dam wall, got a good crib and slowly climbed over and swam off into the deeper side. When all the water splashing settled down, we was just in shock, big adrenaline rush for what we just witnessed and then I asked my uncle how come that boar still sitting in the water near the dam wall. That wild boar just sat there, didn’t even move, I said to my uncle maybe that boar froze in fear from that croc? As we walked up a bit closer to that boar me and my uncle realised it was already dead, that boar had a few good scares on his head from the croc and then we noticed that crocodile chopped that good size boar in half, the boar from the distance, gave the illusion like he was sitting on his arse in the water chilling out, but he was already finished.
As drove off I was telling my uncle I got a some photos of all the action, I was thinking that I might be able to win some award like the National Geographic Awards for the Best Wildlife Photography in the World, and they gonna give me a photography job, and I am gonna go to Africa to take wildlife photos of lions and Elephants. Lot of ideas where coming up and I was really looking forward to developing these amazing croc photos.
Back in those old days we would have to take our 35mm film to the photoshop so it could be developed and I later found out that I had the Pentax SLR camera on the wrong manual settings (should of left it in auto camera settings), those big crocodile photo turned out under exposed big black blurry crocodile shadow – my camera setting were incorrect: aperture was set on 22 and shutter was set on 500 I thought they were good numbers, they were terrible settings for photography in that particular environment.
That day out near Acacia/ Marrakia country that inspired me, that crocodile give me a spark to make changes in my life to go to university and learn about artwork and photography. Inspired from crocodile to learn how to use a camera. I saved them photos, poor quality and you can see them under exposed photos of that tiny dam wall below:
Here are some of the no good photos due to wrong camera settings
I got into artwork and I found out I was pretty good with my creative skills, I been taking photographs and further developing my skills in new media arts for the last 30 years, I have strong passion for creating images in to works of art. I have exhibit my artwork and attended art conferences and workshops on a national and international level. These blurry photographs above here is one one the reasons why I decided to go to university (Northern Territory University – now called Charles Darwin University) to learn about photography and get in to artwork. Wrong camera settings, wrong apperture settings, wrong shutter speed settings, the under exposed photos of the big crocodile shadow. These photograph above is what it looks like on 35mm film, this mistake made me want to learn how take good photos. A couple of months later I decided to try to draw that saltwater crocodile jumping in black and white, way back in 1996. And, around 20 odd years later that crocodile design turned into a polo shirt and then a long sleeve hunting and fishing shirt, I do a little bit of local wholesale business.
My graphic design work and hand drawn image of crocodile jumping is titled: Inspired – this is my tribute back to that day we went out pig hunting and the incident that happened with a big crocodile that created a spark to make want to learn about photography and digital media, Inspired. Now I am working on applying my art skills in the area of fashion – Original Tribes. Designing fashion products and setting up online eCommerce fashion business.
Copyright notice: Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part maybe reproduced by any process without prior written permission from artist Jason Davidson Hampton – Original Tribes. Requests and enquires concerning reproduction and copyright should be addressed to artist Jason Davidson Hampton via email: jd.hampton@originaltribes.com
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