O is for Oodgeroo Noonuccal

     Who? Poet, Educator, Activist, Creative AKA KATH WALKER

Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska was born in November 1920. She was a descendant of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah. [North Stradbroke Island]. Her totem was Kabool the carpet snake, who could not be eaten by his people.

Kath was strongly influenced by her parents. Mother Lucy was one of the ‘stolen generation’, who was not taught to read or write at the mission, gaining domestic skills instead. Her father, Ted Ruska, was the foreman of a gang of Aboriginal labourers employed by the Queensland Government. Their measley income was supplemented by using the traditional hunter/gatherer skills of the Noonuccal people. 

Lucy was determined her children would read and write. Her father said to her ‘Just ‘cos you’re Aboriginal doesn’t mean you have to be as good as most white children – you have to be better.’

Kath attended Dunwich State School which she left at 13 to become a poorly paid live-in domestic servant. In 1941 she joined the Australian Women’s Army Service. [AWAS]. She was promoted to corporal, worked in switchboard operations and later as a pay clerk.

In 1942 Kath married Bruce Walker – a descendant of the Logan and Albert River Aboriginal people – though a dependence on alcohol led to domestic violence and the complete breakdown of that marriage.

To support herself and young child Kath became a domestic servant for the family of Sir Ralph and Lady Cilento who encouraged Kath to write and taught her to draw and paint.

In 1964 her poetry anthology, “We Are Going”, was the first book to be published by an Aboriginal woman. The title poem ends: 

“The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter.

  The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place. 

   The bora ring is gone The corroboree is gone And we are going.”

“The Dawn is at Hand ” was published in 1966 and the third collection “My People: A Kath Walker Collection,” was published in 1970.

In the 1960’s Oodgeroo fought for Aboriginal rights. In 1963 she met Sir Robert Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister. When he offered her a drink of wine she told him that if he had done that in Queensland he could have been put in gaol. It was not until 1967 that Aboriginal people had the right to vote.

In 1972 Oodgeroo returned to the birthplace of her people – the Noonuccal. She established an education and cultural centre at Moongalba [sitting down place] on Stradbroke Island. By 1987, 26,500 children had experienced sitting down and learning at Moongalba.

In 1988 she adopted a traditional name: Oodgeroo – paperbark tree – and Noonuccal – the name of her people.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal earned many awards:

• 1970 Mary Gilmore Medal

• 1975 Jessie Litchfield Award

• International Acting Award

• Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Award

• Doctor of the University from Griffith University.

In 1970, as Kath Walker, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community. In 1987 she returned it as a protest against the forthcoming bicentenary celebrations of Australia. She stated, “Next year, 1988, to me marks 200 years of rape and carnage, all these terrible things that the Aboriginal tribes of Australia have suffered without any recognition even of admitted guilt from the parliaments of England…. From the Aboriginal point of view, what is there to celebrate? … I can no longer with a clear conscience accept the English honour of the MBE and will be returning to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England.“

Oodgeroo Noonuccal died in 1993 at the age of 72.

Note:

This is very much an abridged version of a life and I recommend reading:

#A-ZChallenge 2024

Australian Trivia

Another Festival : Art My Word

I’ve been to the local Library this morning to listen to author Heather Morris, of “The Tattooist Of Auschwitz” trilogy fame. Morris was discussing her latest release, ” Sisters Under The Rising Sun”, which I mentioned recently about the Bangka Island massacre.

Sitting with a courtesy cuppa I reflected on a recent visit to a community-run Library in Southern Moreton Bay. Located on Macleay Island, a twenty minute ferry ride across the bay, this book depository is no bigger than my local cafe and doubles as an Art Gallery. Although it does receive a yearly grant to purchase new books they depend on fundraising and donations to stock the shelves. Being situated on a small island – an area of 15 square km and population of 2,500 – there are lots of committed readers, so thank goodness for the four ( at last count) Free Little Street Libraries scattered around the area.

What the Community Library lacks in books and technology – with one computer only- it certainly has in community spirit by the truckloads.

Art My Word is a Festival that embraces creativity and the written word, and is the Island’s major fundraising event. As well as author talks, writing workshops, and a cocktail/mocktail function the Festival includes two big events:

1. Old books relegated to the bin are wrapped in brown paper and are randomly selected by entrants who then have to create a piece of 2D or 3D art inspired by that book.
2. Local photographers submit photos which are enlarged and placed in an envelope. These envelopes are then selected at random by writers who then submit a short story of up to 2000 words inspired by the photo. The best of these stories are then published in book format and what I’ve really enjoyed is reading the author’s comments about what inspired their story. ( I tend not to “get it” but giving it a positive spin I think this is because I either don’t drink enough or don’t touch weed).

A fun Festival which also includes events for the Little People so looking forward to its return in 2025.

PS  

Heather Morris is a brilliant raconteur. Just when you think there is nothing else to learn from the sinking of the Vyner Brook merchant ship during WW2:

1. The Australian Nurses had to be fattened up following their internment in camps for three and a half years during WW2. The Austn Government  did not want the women to be seen so when they disembarked at Perth in late 1945 all were sent direct to hospital for treatment of medical conditions and more fattening up. When the call went out to send flowers to the hospital it was inundated. Rural folk were known to drive for three hours with flowers picked from their front gardens.
2. The British women internees did not return to the UK until 1946. The British Government felt it would detract from the British male POWs returning from Changi who were given a heroes welcome. ( Yep, shed a wee tear and muttered something rather blue under my breath). 

Tea Towels.

Successfully completed my first day within the New Year having walked over 10,000 steps with a few concerns that I’de be celebrating in the morgue. Brisbane City is hot and humid in summer and the building work happening in preparation for the 2032 Olympic Games makes it a minefield.

So what teased us out of the dozy comfort of suburbia by the Bay?

A display of souvenir tea towels  produced from the 1950’s up until ten years ago from all across the state of Queensland. After all, haven’t we all purchased or been gifted a colourful tea towel reminding us of a holiday somewhere down the line?

Queensland To A T at the State Library is a fascinating exhibition of tea towels collected by local Glenn R Cooke, who also has a penchant for tablecloths, aprons and wall hangings that depict a particular time of the State’s cultural history. Many of the tea towels on display were money spinners from tourist destinations whilst some featuring politicians were political fundraisers.

I was always a sucker for a pretty tea towel; they were inexpensive and practical and lasted for years. Just take a peek inside my linen press. Not so inexpensive these days though I do have a couple that I purchased with a view to framing because I liked the artwork.

My favourite go anywhere carry-all is made from recycled tea towels. It’s strong and reversible and is a reminder of favourite townships on the East Coast of Tasmania.

And tea towels sure beat snow domes, don’t they? The Exhibition closes at the end of January.

We completed our day as tourists by walking through cosmopolitan West End and sampling some fine bevys at the Brisbane Gin Distillery. It’s amazing how many extra steps you can manage when carrying a couple of refreshing gins within.

Queenie McKenzie ( 1915 – 1998)

Queenie (or Mingmarriya) was born on the banks of the Ord River in the Kimberleys to an indigenous mother and white father at a time when children with mixed parentage were often removed by the Government and sent to an institution. In an effort to keep her safe her mother rubbed charcoal into her skin enabling Queenie to remain on the cattle station where she worked as a cook and gained a love and understanding of country. She is quoted as saying “Every rock, every hill, every water, I know that place backwards and forwards, up and down, inside out. It’s my country and I got names for every place”.

She displayed this feel for the land in her contemporary Indigenous art which remains among Australia’s most collectible with many artworks being autobiographical, and others depicting the violent colonial past.

McKenzie’s importance has been recognized by the government of Western Australia, which declared her as a “State Living Treasure” the year of her death.

Celebrating the women from our past to the present who have helped shape Australia.
#AtoZChallenge

The Colour Of My Life

I failed art at high school. It harks back to those first years of formal education back in the early 60’s when teachers would rap you on the knuckles with a ruler for colouring outside the lines. This torture continued as I progressed to learning cursive writing using a slope card. Do you remember them? If you failed to negotiate the appropriate guidelines you copped another slap on the wrist. Add this to learning to write using an inkwell and having to earn your “pen licence” and I was petrified throughout most of years at primary school. No wonder I never took to art…….(Don’t even ask how arithmetic classes affected my mental wellbeing, especially with an overachiever accountant as a father.)

Slope Card

Years later in my own home I rebelled and let loose developing a keen eye for colour : colour and art works by developing creatives. Treated myself to a piece of art every year for years. Lost them all in the divorce from a man who only liked the interior walls of a house to be beige.  Beige is Boring especially in the days when Mission Brown was splattered across every neighbourhood in Australia.

So I celebrated by painting my house feel good colours, colours that added warmth to my life, such as Sunflower Yellow and Budgie Green. Real Estate Agents laughed at my colour scheme, but it was I who had the last laugh.

Paint By Numbers and Still unable to paint between the lines.

In retirement, and with these days of Covid isolation and reflection, I have rediscovered the benefits of art. I still lack any artistic talent but creating something tangible and playing with colour has kept me sane. I’ve completed a couple of Paint By Number Kits ( never again, thankyou, fruit of my loins ) and successfully completed two Art Therapy study programs. 

Courtesy of Creative Therapy College

Last week we attended a guided paint workshop under the marketing umbrella of Paint And Sip. All very casual and social where you receive instructions on how and what to paint whilst grazing on BYO nibbles. Loved playing with the paints and mixing colours so much so that I will investigate local classes. It was also interesting to see that although everyone received the same instructions all results were different. Here’s a case in point : 

Pablo Picasso once said ” Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”   I’ve got a damn lot of dust to get rid of yet………

To end, here are five fun facts about colour:

1. Mosquitoes are attracted to blue
2. There’s a name for the colour you see when you turn the lights off, just before it turns dark – eigengrau

   3.  Red is the first colour a baby sees.

   4.  Pink can curb anger. Pink prisons, do you think?

   5. Colour can affect taste.

And from my very own Natural Therapist, did you know that there are 66 different shades of green and that the state of your health can be determined by the number of greens you can see?

First Nation’s Storytellers

It is only over recent months that I became aware of Australian Aboriginal Astronomy after having listened to Astrophysicist and Science Communicator, Kirsten Banks, on of all things, a home renovation show.

Of Wiradjuri descent Kirsten has a particular interest in how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have used the stars for over 65,000 years for navigation purposes, predicting weather seasons, and for determining when the best time is to hunt for certain foods such as emu eggs. “ Aboriginal Astronomy can teach us about the link between the sky and the land”, she said.

My interest was further piqued on my recent outback Queensland travels and in particular Winton. Winton’s small population, low humidity, and low light pollution make it the ideal location to stargaze and the area around the Australian Age of Dinosaurs is now one of only ten internationally recognised areas certified as a Dark Sky Sanctuary.

Since then I have been receiving social media alerts regarding Aboriginal artwork related to the skies. ( see Aboriginal Skies)

With a daughter in Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory – which I grew up calling Gove – an area in East Arnham land populated for some 40,000 years by the Yolgnu people, we all have a new appreciation for the story tellers from our First Nation. Contemporary Australian Indigenous art often references astronomical subjects and their related lore such as the Seven Sisters.

Here are examples of some of the art works:

This fabulous artwork was submitted by Annette Joy. Annette is a Gourmanjanyuk/Wergaia artist and the painting represents Yerrerdetkurrk, which is the star Achernar. Yerrerdetkurrk is the ‘Nalwinkurrk’, or mother of Totyarguil’s wives. The ‘Nalwinkurrk’ never allows’ her son-in law to see her. Achernar is a bright, binary star system located in the constellation Eridanus, and is the ninth-brightest star in the night sky.

“Hydra the Water Serpent” from the ‘Shared Sky Exhibition’. This exhibition highlighted the connections between Aboriginal & contemporary astronomy. This artwork is acrylic on linen (70cm x 52cm) and the artist is Nerolie Blurton. “The Water Serpent, stretched across the sky with its many heads, was a monster until it was cut and killed. The red blood drips down from the clot. The browns and orange show that the Hydra can be seen best in autumn.”

If Aboriginal Astronomy intrigues you I recommend reading the story of The Emu In The Sky by Ray and Cilla Norris. Fascinating and guaranteed to give you a brand new perspective.

Dark Sky and Dinosaur Country at Winton overlooking Banjo’s “plains extended” and “vision splendid”.

Isn’t it bizarre how watching something on TV simply to learn how to stop bugs eating young eggplants can take you on such a convoluted journey ? * shaking head and muttering.

Silos And Murals – Part 2

Forty kms out of Toowoomba along the highway to Millmerran you bypass the town of Pittsworth. Take your foot off the accelerator or you’ll drive past some of the prettiest murals along the trek each depicting the township’s history, culture, produce and attractions.

It’s amazing how much you learn from a mural and how many fellow travellers you meet along the way. I had to google Arthur Postle, a Pittsworth lad with the nickname “ The Crimson Flash” who held records in running in the early 1900’s, racing all around the world.

Another 40kms along the highway and this greets you at Millmerran.

Just WOW with parkland and onsite parking where you can stretch the legs. ( And a coffee cart. Yay!)

Just up the road is the Visitor Information Centre housed in a defunct railway carriage which is worth a visit in order to pick up a brochure about the historical murals dotted throughout the district.

My ex brother-in-law lived in Millmerran for a time. Because I didn’t like him one bit by association I did not like Millmerran. I know; makes me sound horrible but you wouldn’t have like the dipstick either.

I owe you an apology, Millmerran – what a lovely little town!

100 kms down the track is Yelarbon, with a population of 350 and with 8 grain silos covered with the most magnificent artwork telling the story of When The Rain Comes using over a 1000 litres of paint.

Australia is a big country, and Queensland is bigger than Texas, so you can drive vast distances and see nothing but landscape. Luckily I’m partial to landscape.

Last drive for the day, thirty minutes west to Goondiwindi.

Get a good nights sleep. You’re going to need it.

NOTE:

All of these rural towns have so much more to offer. In this instance I am restricting the attractions to murals and painted silos.

Road Trip Around Southern Queensland Country – Silos, Murals and Hospitality

The Queensland State Government has been dishing out tourist dollars in an attempt to encourage residents of the South East corner to visit attractions right along the coast of the state that are doing it tough because of closed international borders. 

So of course we opted to travel inland following the Southern Queensland Country painted silo mural trail throughout an area that had endured years of devastating drought, followed by damaging floods. Our five day road trip took us to two painted silos, three painted water tanks, and nearly 100 murals. We experienced some great artwork, gained further insight into Australia’s history, and sampled a smorgasbord of country hospitality.

Let’s start in Toowoomba, only 2 hours west of Brisbane and Qld’s largest regional city.

The original First Coat Festival took place in Toowoomba in 2014 as a creative initiative to encourage public places to be transformed into street art spaces with the walls of buildings and laneways used as backdrops ( as well as reducing graffiti issues). Over the next few years over 55 murals had been completed, and although the Festival is now defunct, the artworks continue to grow in numbers. The most recent additions are within the Grand Central Shopping Centre.

And here’s my first confession:

Toowoomba with its four distinct seasons, despite being only 120 kms away, is so unlike Brisbane (that is either hot and humid or warm and dry) I tend to visit some of the 150 parklands dotted across the city simply to enjoy the gardens. Traffic lights and shopping centres are avoided like the plague. We did walk down Ruthven Street to take in the murals.

Second confession:

We hit the Fluffy Ducks. Big time. Think the last Fluffy Duck I consumed was in the late 70’s at the Hilton Supper Club listening to The Commodores. Long time ago….. Totally my fault. Couldn’t face the crowds.

The Visitor Information Centre has two brochures available: one to follow the mural trail, and the other to follow the mosaic trail. Both are very helpful.

To be continued………

Old Dogs and New Tricks

I failed Domestic Science at High School. The only F I ever received on a report card. I knew better than to enrol in Sewing Classes after having received a D, in a scale from A to D, at Primary School. My mother, a seamstress who could turn a parachute into a wedding gown during the war years, was appalled. She gave me her first Singer Sewing Machine thinking that it would provide encouragement. Never switched it on and it later became a garden ornament alongside the gnomes.

Unable to use a needle and thread the only thing I used a needle for was removing splinters out of little fingers when the children were small.

Knitting, crochet, and quilting were never options though I’ve always been pretty handy with a paintbrush. Over the years I have painted both the exteriors and interiors of several houses. Unfortunately, often in colours that have had real estate agents cringing. My last house I opted to bulldoze and redevelop after comments about my sunflower yellow and budgie green colour scheme.

(Personal Note : That’s what comes of living with someone whose life is coloured by beige).

So I’m a little surprised with two new hobbies I’ve picked up since retirement.
Having the time to explore new interests truly is one of the positives of the finality of a working life. No guilt whatsoever. Loving it!

Mind you, I’ve had some EPIC fails. Like square dancing. Who knew it was so hard to differentiate between your left and your right? The popularity of using the clocks on our electrics as opposed to a watch has only exacerbated this issue (for sum of us). And those flouncy skirts were cute when I was six, not so at sixty.

What I am enjoying is an online Art Therapy study program. I’ve done collage, meditation to promote creativity, learnt about colour therapy, created my Tree of Life, and am currently working with clay. Well, plasticine really – it’s less expensive.

Art Therapy is used as a healing process. I was creatively stunted when I was young and perpetually fearful of having my knuckles rapped with a ruler by over zealous teachers when I coloured outside the lines. A bit like Harry Chapin’s song :

(Personal Note : Probably accounts for Mr Beige).

My search for Trailblazing Aussie Women is proving fascinating. I started with names of well known women but this exercise has led me down a rabbit hole and I have stumbled upon an 8 year old who walked the Kokoda Track and proceeded to climb Kilimanjaro and Everest, an Indigenous woman with a degree from Harvard, and a lass who has been working on the Mars Mission.

LIFE LESSON : You can teach an old dog new tricks.

The Australian Silo Art Trail

Our State Government has spent millions of dollars promoting Queensland in an effort to jump start tourism with the recent relaxation of Covid 19 restrictions. Now I know I’m being judgemental ( Sorry LA, Waking Up On The Wrong Side Of Fifty), but MORONIC: point me to a Queenslander who doesn’t know the location of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Northern Territory Government had the right idea in handing out tourist dollars to the first 200,000 Territory travellers, bypassing the Marketing gurus completely and putting the dollars directly into the hands of those who would share it amongst small business. Love your work…..

However, good breeding dictates that one must not discuss politics before supper and/or a bottle of vino.

Some five years ago a movement began in Western Australia to beautify the landscape and encourage tourists to rural communities by using silos for murals.

Yep, painting murals on silos depicting regional history and points of interest.

This has since grown to become The Australian Silo Art Trail and continues to flourish and attract thousands to regional centres. There are currently 36 painted silos which can be covered in six Silo Art Trail road trips in five states, as well as artworks on 40 water towers.

Thallon, Qld

I’ve just purchased the Silo Art Calendar for 2021 – because I’m optimistic that we will get through this wretched year – and am amazed by some of the stories reflected in the artwork.

If you are interested in learning more go here:

https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/

So ready to pack my bags. My feet are growing mouldy.

TIP :

For best results when traveling throw out the bloody GPS.

 “ Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a Storyteller.”      – Ibn Battuta