Conversations with the Mob is an intimate photographic portrayal of the Martu Aboriginal people, one of the last Indigenous groups in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert to come into contact with Europeans.  

When the Mob allowed a whitefella – photojournalist Megan Lewis – to come and live with them, the understanding was she was there to take photographs to share with outsiders.  But as two and a half years passed and Megan absorbed herself in the Mob’s way, it became apparent that the project was more than a book or an exhibition… it was a journey of marpan (healing) for whitefellas and Martu alike.   

“Your photos are making Martu look at themselves and think, what are we doing… Now I see why you have to do this, because Martu have to look at themselves.” 

Conversations with the Mob captures the reality of a traditional people living neither in their old world or in a white world.  Through photographs, oral stories and Megan’s own experiences with the Mob, the reader enters the reality of desert life where health, grief, footy, humour, sorry business and spirits consume daily survival.

In 2005, Megan’s images of the Martu won a Walkey Award.  It is the author’s vision that offering Conversations with the Mob to the wider international community will help channel support for initiatives into Martu health, diet and lifestyle.