Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stories

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17 APRIL – 14 JUNE 2021

Esme Timbery | Marilyn Russell | Phyllis Stewart | Suzanne Stewart Julie Freeman | Markeeta Freeman | Deanna Schreiber | Annette Webb Dolly Brown | Jemma Kitchener | Amy Hill-Trindall | Kerry Toomey Merindah Funnell | Strong Sister: Aboriginal girls from Endeavour Sports High

Hazelhurst Arts Centre in collaboration with La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, Gujaga Foundation, Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation and the Sutherland Shire Council Aboriginal Advisory Committee

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FOREWORD

Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stoires was originally planned for 2020, the year which marked 250 years since the meeting of two cultures at Kamay (Botany Bay). The site is in close proximity to Hazelhurst Arts Centre and as such it was important for the gallery to acknowledge this moment in history.

Discussions about the exhibition began several years ago but were crystallised when Graham Avery, Aboriginal Heritage Officer at Sutherland Shire Council, gave a presentation about the history and significance of the Gweagal Shield and the important role that First Nations woman Biddy Giles (1810-1888) had played in sharing knowledge, history and culture with non-Indigenous people.

This led to discussions between Hazelhurst’s Curator with Sutherland Shire Council’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee, La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation and elders from the La Perouse and the Sutherland Shire.

What developed was the concept for an exhibition that focused on the important role that Dharawal women have played

in passing on knowledge and culture by sharing their personal stories and those stories that have been passed on to them by generations of First Nations women.

The result is a collaborative and inclusive exhibition that specifically focusses on First Nations women from southern Sydney. It provides audiences with an opportunity learn about the history of the region and women who played a significant role in supporting their communities, hear women telling their stories in their own words and see contemporary artworks that were loaned or specially commissioned for the exhibition.

Thank you to the organisations, artists, elders and individuals that have contributed to and supported this unique project. Thank you to Sutherland Shire Council for their ongoing support of arts and culture in southern Sydney. Thank you to Create NSW for their continued support of our artistic program and thank you to our principal sponsors, The Holt Estate and Moran Aged Care for their generous contributions.

Belinda Hanrahan Director Hazelhurst Arts Centre

Previous page: Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 (detail) various materials

Opposite: installation view Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stroies

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WULIWULAWALA DHARAWAL WOMEN SHARING STORIES

Wuliwulawala (women) celebrates the resilience and creativity of First Nations women connected to Dharawal land of southern Sydney. Featuring historical content, interviews and contemporary art this exhibition focusses on the importance of sharing stories, knowledge and oral histories across generations, while recognising the perspectives of women connected to our local and national history.

The exhibition has been developed in consultation with the Sutherland Shire Council Aboriginal Advisory Committee, La Perouse Land Council, Gujaga Foundation, Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation as well as the women elders from La Perouse and the Sutherland Shire region.

The exhibition has three components: an introduction to local Dharawal history and a focus on three significant Dharawal women from the local area: Biddy Giles, Emma Timbery and Kate Saunders and their relationship to the La Perouse Community.

Their descents have taken part in a specially commissioned series of interviews involving several generations of women who talk about their connection to place, their families and their history. In another series of interviews the contributing artists talk about their works and their personal stories and connection to the local area. These artists have developed new works or presented existing works that respond to their personal histories and experiences.

The making of shellworked objects by Aboriginal women from La Perouse were sold at Circular Quay and Botany Bay as early as the 1880s. The practice was encouraged by missionaries working with the La Perouse community as way for women to generate an income. They follow the traditional of coastal Aboriginal communities handcrafting objects such as fish hooks and jewellery from locally sourced shells for thousands of years. La Perouse shell artists are renowned for their exquisite and delicate shell covered boxes, slippers and depictions of Sydney icons such as the Harbour Bridge.

Esme Timbery is a Bidjigal Elder who lives at La Perouse and the grand-daughter of Emma Timbery, a master shellworker whose works were shown at the Royal Easter Show and at an exhibition of Australian crafts in England in 1910. Esme began learning shellwork skills as a young girl alongside her sister Rose when they took part in collecting and sorting shells according to size and colour from the beaches on the NSW south coast. Timbery created her first work, a brooch, at age 7, and has been exhibiting in galleries and museums since 2000.

For Wuliwulawala her daughter, artist Marilyn Russell, has created a new series of works which references Esme and Marilyn working alongside each other and the traditions of shell work being passed from one generation to the next. This will be exhibited alongside works on loan from the Sydney Opera

House Trust and the collections of the University of NSW, the University of Wollongong and Wollongong Art Gallery, including a Harbour Bridge work created collaborative with her sister Rose Timbery in 1987/88.

Phyllis Stewart is a Dharawal/Yuin artist from the south coast who has family ties to La Perouse. She was taught the art of shell work as child and primarily produced shoes and slippers. She is also an accomplished weaver and leads a monthly weaving group for western Sydney Aboriginal women. A shell box created in response and exhibited alongside a jewellery box by her daughter Suzanne Stewart, will be featured in the exhibition in addition to her examples of her slippers and weaving work on loan from the University of Wollongong and Wollongong Art Gallery.

Senior cultural knowledge holder Julie Freeman is a Gorawarl and Jerrawongarla woman and a traditional owner for south Sydney and the south coast of New South Wales. Her mother was born at La Perouse and comes from a long line of shellworkers and story tellers and her father was a Wreck Bay fisherman.

Working across sculpture, traditional weaving and painting, Julie uses “the materials of country to tell the stories of country” and gathers reeds, shells and ochre from the shores of Wreck Bay, on the New South Wales South Coast to develop works are inspired by family, culture, tradition and history.

Freeman’s daughter Markeeta Freeman is a Gurawarl-Wandandiandi and Waradjuri women who often works alongside her mother to develop collaborative works.

She is also a master weaver. With an Environmental Science degree she often Above: Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 various materials (detail)

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in particular, her Auntie Josie Bri-Haines whose earthenware ‘widows mourning cap’ is held in the collection of the NGV. The works are made from tissue paper that is interwoven with emu feathers, echidna quills, quandong seeds, test and poker work patterns to signify a connection to her Kamilaroi culture and the stories that were passed down to her from generations of women. She has said of the work: “I reflect on a time when my mother was told not to speak her language and their customs were forbidden and we are now reclaiming our histories and making it our own.”

combines modern science with traditional cultural perspectives. For Wuliwulawala Julie and Markeeta Freeman have included several collaborative sculptural installations alongside individual paintings and drawings that tell traditional stories.

Deanna Schreiber is a Wiradjuri, Wonnarua and Gadigal elder who has lived in Cronulla for more than 40 years.

In 1994 she was a founding member of the Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation, a not-for-profit established to provide local Aboriginal people with a safe meeting place and assistance in accessing government services. She has worked tirelessly to improve outcomes for her community in health and education and is a respected Aunty and mentor. She shares her cultural history with the community though her art and education talks.

Her works in Wuliwulawala depict the tradition of women fishing as well as local native flora and fauna.

Above: installation Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stroies

Annette Webb is a proud Dunghetti woman who was born in Sydney and lives in southern Sydney. She spent part of her childhood at Ellimatta Girls Home in East Maitland after being taken from her family and told that her father had died.

After two years her Aunty and Uncle were given permission to raise her. Annette’s vibrant and highly detailed works celebrate the memory of her mother’s flower garden, the ever-changing colours of the land where she grew up and women sharing stories.

Kerry Toomey is a Murri woman of the Kamilaroi nation. She grew up in Pilliga, NSW and has been living in Bundeena for the past 30 years. She has developed a new body of work for the exhibition which focusses on traditional Kamilaroi mourning caps (a clay cap worn by Kamilaroi women when their husbands died) and hats that have been inspired by stories of her family who grew up in northern NSW,

Merindah Funnell is a Cronulla based artist born on Dharawal land and a proud female Wiradjuri artist. Her mother is a Wiradjuri woman from the Western Plains of NSW. Merindah’s great grandfather is the famous Alex Riley (‘Black Tracker Riley’) from Dubbo NSW. Merindah’s art is a combination of her love for contemporary design and her deep respect for Indigenous art. Her work relies on symbolism that relates to her heritage and her life’s journey. In 2018 Merindah created the illustrated children’s colouring book Dharawal: Counting and Colouring.

Working together with elders and educators the book depicts Dharawal culture with plants and animals alongside their Dharawal words. For Wuliwulawala she has produced digitally coloured prints of the illustrations and text.

Amy Hill-Trindall is a Kamilaroi woman who grew up along the Georges and Woronora Rivers. Her artistic practice has been shaped by her experiences of working with elders and learning about Aboriginal art, in particular with her aunt.

Amy’s bright and dynamic paintings and digital drawings demonstrate her love of

colour, which she uses to bring emotion and meaning to the stories she is sharing.

She is inspired to teach her children and others about Aboriginal art and culture and hope that her works foster understanding and bring joy to those who experience them.

Dolly Brown is a Yuin Dunghutti woman who lives in Miranda. She is an artist and actress. For Wuliwulawala she has created a hard-hitting new work which invited women from her community to share their experiences and stories. Each women is represented by a doll, which the artist has collected over the last two years, to create an installation that echoes the work of Destiny Deacon and which references childhood experiences through the inclusion of vintage prams and toys as well as the scrubbing brushes and brooms that immediately conjure references to experiences in the Aboriginal girls homes. Jemma Kitchener, Dolly’s daughter, has produced new paintings which feature animals that are significant to the Dharawal people of the southern Sydney region.

Aboriginal students from Endeavour Sports High School’s Strong Sister program have painted a new mural in the foyer of Hazelhurst Arts Centre. The students work with Endeavour High art teacher Rick O’Brien and Bruce Howell to develop murals that acknowledge and celebrate the Indigenous heritage of the Sutherland region. The figures in their murals represent Indigenous art that still exists in the local area, such as rock art in the Royal National Park, sites that tell a little part of the story of the people in lived in this area before the arrival of the British in 1788.

Carrie Kibbler Curator Hazelhurst Arts Centre

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Dharawal Women of La Perouse Dharawal women have always been keepers of culture and play a central role in family and community.

Dharawal country spans from Sydney harbour down through to the Illawarra where the main source of food and livelihood is from the sea and connecting rivers. Fishing is natural for Aboriginal people as it is a cultural practice informed by traditional knowledge that has been perfected over generations. As men use spears, women would use fishing hooks, rope, and would weave nets and baskets.

Women’s fishing practices played a major role in the traditional economy.

Sydney and Illawarra Coastline showing Sutherland Shire and La Perouse

Gamay (Botany Bay) is the place of first contact between Europeans and Indigenous Australia. It was here in Sydney where the effects and devastation of smallpox, illness, violence, stolen land, and government policies were felt first and hardest. It was in this time where Indigenous women fought to keep culture and community alive and strong.

At La Perouse in the 1870s an Aboriginal fishing village was established by women of Botany Bay and the surrounding area. It was here where they used their traditional knowledge and practices to make a living.

Dharawal women would practice fishing, use it as an income, as well as advise and inform others on Dharawal waters. Over the next decades the remaining Aboriginal people from camps around Sydney Harbour

and Gamay at that time were relocated there. In 1895, La Perouse was formally established as one of the earliest Aboriginal reserves in NSW. Aboriginal people living on the reserve were affected by so-called government ‘protection’ policies which restricted their freedoms and forced them to segregate.

In the 1890s anthropologist RH Mathews and school teacher Mary Everitt visited senior Aboriginal women at the La Perouse Aboriginal community. They were keen to record information about language and culture. Mathews regarded the people there as ‘the descendants of the native tribe that occupied the district at the time of the English occupation of New South Wales in 1788.’

Among the women they met were Emma Timbery, Biddy Giles and Kate Sims.

These women were all born in the 1840s and 1850s and identified themselves as Dharawal women. You will learn more about these women’s lives and their significance in this exhibition. These Dharawal women have many hundreds of descendants, many of whom still live at La Perouse and on Dharawal country, while others have travelled further south along the coast and elsewhere. Today the La Perouse community is strong in culture and identity. The women have been leaders in the community and are the reason why the community is as strong as it is today.

Text supplied by the Gujaga Foundation, La Perouse

Painting from 1878 showing the La Perouse headland at the time that the Aboriginal settlement was established Source: T.G. Glover, 1878. La Perouse Botany Bay, N.S.W. (NLA PIC Volume 1014 #R4206).

Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation.

Fish hooks that were used by women for fishing From the collection of La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation

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Biddy Giles Biddy Giles, also known as Biyarung and Granny Giles, was born around 1810 at Broughton Creek in the southern Illawarra. It is documented that Biyarung was the daughter of a man who witnessed Cook’s Landing in 1770, though not much else is known of her early life. By the 1850s she was living in Wollongong with her husband Burragalong (Paddy Davis) with whom she had two daughters, Ellen and Rosie.

guns were, and woe betide the wallaby or wallabies.1 On these trips, Biddy would also share with her customers and people from the local area, stories of Dharawal people.

One story was told to her by her father who was a small boy at the time of a major storm when several Aboriginal men women and children were trapped in a rock shelter. Biddy told how the shelter roof ‘had been struck by lightning, while a large number of Aborigines, who had come from all parts of the South Coast – even as far as the Shoalhaven – to take part in a corroborree, were taking shelter under it during a severe storm, and that it had collapsed, burying or killing all those sheltering under it.’2

Biddy was a very skilled woman. Her excellence in hunting and fishing as well as speaking and translating the Dharawal language was demonstrated throughout her life. After leaving her husband Paddy Davis around 1858 Biddy moved to southern Sydney on the Georges River, where she remarried English husband Billy Giles. Together from the 1860s they Above all of these remarkable skills, it operated fishing and hunting tours around is obvious that such cultural knowledge the Georges and Hacking Rivers. and expertise was embedded within her through a deep connection to cultural Biddy was well known for her exceptional and kinship ties. She shared this expertise understanding of the waters which were and knowledge with her daughter Ellen, best for catching fish. As one customer who in turn shared them in her own way put it ‘no matter what hour of the day it in the 1920s through the publication of a was, or what was the state of the tide, book, Australian Legends, featuring many or what kind was the weather, “Biddy” traditional Dharawal stories. When Biddy could, so to speak, put us “on” to the fish.’ died in 1888, she left a long and lasting The same customer also observed that legacy of knowledge and connection Biddy was a remarkable dog trainer and that has been passed down to her was ‘astonished’ at her pack of hunting descendants today. dogs.

She worked them by hand without a word. At her bidding they would form an extended line at the top of a gully and beat downward to the guns without a whimper until a wallaby was sighted and started. Then the whole pack gave chase and down the gully the came to where the

Robinson, S. B. J. ‘Small beer chronicles and chronicle small beer’, St George Call 8/4/1911: 6.

2 ‘Century-old Tragedy. Discovery at Tyreel Point.

Aboriginal axes and bones’, Delegate Argus 12/9/1918: 4 1

Text supplied by the Gujaga Foundation, La Perouse

Photograph of Biddy Giles from Dolls Point in the 1880s Source: Australian Indigenous Ministeries, 1880. “Last of the Georges River Tribe, NSW [workers on the Holt Sutherland Estate, 1880. Jim Brown, Joe Brown, Joey, Biddy Giles, Jimmy Lowndes]” (SLNSW, Australian Indigenous Ministries – pictorial collection – various historical photographs, ca. 1860-1909. PXA773, Series 3, Box 6, Image 42).

Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation.

Emma Timbery at La Perouse in the 1910s Source: [Emma Timbery at La Perouse] (Woollahra Local History Centre, Robinson, Leo Whitby – personal papers WLHC MS 3). Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation.

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Young boy in front of a hut either belonging to Emma or like the one she lived in. ca 1910s.

Source: [Hut at La Perouse] (Woollahra Local History Centre, Robinson, Leo Whitby – personal papers WLHC MS 3). Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation.

Emma Timbery Emma Timbery was born Emma Waldron on the Georges River at Liverpool in around 1842 to an Aboriginal mother and a European father from Wollongong.

She married Illawarra man George ‘Trimmer’ Timbery (c.1839 – 1920) at Botany in 1864. After living for a time in the Illawarra, they moved back to Gamay in the late 1870s where they helped establish the La Perouse Aboriginal fishing village.

community at La Perouse to continue fishing practices to make a living.

A picturesque little ceremony took place yesterday at Mr. W. Ramsay’s boatshed, Little Manly, in connection with the launching of a boat intended for the use of the aborigines at La Perouse. A number of ladies and gentlemen interested in the welfare of these native denizens assembled to take part in the affair, and among those present were Queen Emma, The two worked for Aboriginal the reigning […] of the little community, sympathiser Richard Hill at his house in and a number of her subjects. The queen the city. A few years later, Hill became the is a bright, intelligent woman of about chairman of the newly formed Aborigines 60 years of age. As the boat slid down Protection Board (or ‘APB’). Emma used the skids the queen took a bottle of her personal relationship with him and Australian wine, decorated with light blue others to ensure that the residents of ribbon, and broke it over the bows of the La Perouse were provided with fishing little croft as it glided into the water, amid boats, food and building materials, the cheers of those present.1 assisting her people. This allowed for the

Emma also assisted with the establishment of the Christian mission at La Perouse. This contributed to La Perouse becoming a permanent Aboriginal settlement. As a senior woman in the early 1900s, she provided language information to anthropologists and was a cultural informant for Mary Everitt. In her capacity as a community leader in 1900 she and others successfully resisted the government’s plans to move the Aboriginal community in La Perouse south to Wallaga Lake. Emma is recorded responding with:

euchres us out o’ some of the ground, and now they’re goin’ to clear us all out altogether. Have they got the power to do it? 2

From her tin hut on the La Perouse mission, Emma was an expert at making shellwork (shell encrusted ornaments), and her work was exhibited in Sydney and even overseas. A few years before her death in 1916, her work was part of a display in London where it was ‘almost fought for’. Her descendants have carried on the shell work tradition, with her great grand-daughter Aunty Esme Timbery we’re livin’ quietly enough here, ain’t we? widely recognised today as a highly Doin’ no harm to nobody. ‘Ere we’ve been skilled artist. all our lives, and ‘ere we want to die— 1 Source: ‘Boat for the La Perouse Aborigines’, Sunday leastways I do, and a lot more of us, too… Times 19/7/1903:3 2 Here they gav us seven acres o’ ground, Source: ‘The La Perouse Blacks. A Visit to the Camp, their projected removal, a wish to remain at Botany and they says ‘here you can live, and Bay, reasons why they should go’, Evening News stop till you die,’ and the first thing they 14/11/1900:2 Text supplied by the Gujaga Foundation, La Perouse

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Kate Sims Born Kate Sims at Broughton Creek in the southern Illawarra area around 1843, she had children to several Aboriginal husbands and one European husband throughout her life. She was also known as Kate Foot, Kate Bundle, Kate Foster, and in her later years as Kathleen Saunders. She was described as having married Joseph Bundle ‘according to their own law’ and on numerous occasions described her pride and knowledge of her Dharawal culture. Kate had extensive family connections along coastal Sydney from Port Stephens through to the Shoalhaven where she travelled widely in her early years.

Kate and her husband Tom Saunders on the beach at La Perouse in the 1920s Source: Image courtesy of the Ingrey family and the Gujaga Foundation.

Photo of the Circular Quay government boatshed in the years before Kate was living there Source: American & Australasian Photographic Company 1870-1875. Looking across the Harbour from cottage on Blues Point Road towards Fort Macquarie and Government House (State Library NSW ON 4 Box 80 No 8), detail. Image courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation.

In the early 1880s Kate was living in camps at Rushcutters Bay and Circular Quay, where she made shell ornaments for sale. It was at Circular Quay where her infant son tragically drowned in 1881, providing a catalyst for the appointment of a ‘Protector of Aborigines’ in NSW later that year, followed by the creation of the NSW Aborigines Protection Board in 1883. The Board would go on to enact cruel policies of segregation and child removal across the state.

Along with the impact of the Board, Kate was affected by the resurgence of missionary activity in the 1870s. She moved to the Maloga Mission on the Murray River in 1881 as one of 23 ‘Sydney’ people. It was there she married Billy Foot, an Aboriginal man from the Manning River, and together they moved back to La Perouse in 1882. Kate was one of the earliest residents of the La Perouse fishing village. In 1884 she and her family were living in an iron and paling hut 16 ft by 12ft with stretchers and blankets and no window sashes and were ‘finding it hard to live at times.’ In the same year she gave birth to her daughter Emma Jane Foster (nee Foot) on the foreshore at what is now known as Frenchman’s Bay, La Perouse.

While living at La Perouse in the 1890s Kate provided language and cultural information to anthropologists and was listed as a cultural and language informant for Mary Everitt. She is also recorded in papers and news articles as speaking Dharawal language and giving the traditional name for La Perouse – Guriwal (copied down as Koori Wull), among other things. A reporter who visited La Perouse in 1908 noted that Kate considers ‘the aboriginal language is a splendid one’ and that ‘they had a better religion before white men ever came here’.1 In her later years, Kate married Tom Saunders, who was born in the Shoalhaven and worked as a commercial fisherman based at La Perouse. Kate passed away in 1930 at La Perouse where some of her descendants still live today. Her daughter Emma Jane devoted her life to caring and treating the sick and delivered babies at La Perouse where she lived up until 1979. She is buried nearby at Matraville.

Kate’s granddaughter (Emma Jane’s daughter), Iris Williams, who lived at La Perouse, was active in community history and language research and preservation.

An example is her contribution in writing and publishing the book La Perouse: the Place, the People, and the Sea. This book is a collection of writings from individuals’ own experience, memories, and what has been passed down to them, documenting the cultural continuity of the La Perouse Aboriginal community. It provides an accurate record of Aboriginal experience and creates a tangible legacy for future generations.

Source: Dean, W.H. 1908. ‘A Dying Race. The Blacks at La Perouse’, Molong Argus 10/1/1908: 8 1

Text supplied by the Gujaga Foundation, La Perouse

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Growing up in La Pa 2021 film Produced by Hazelhurst Arts Centre in partnership with La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council Contributors: Shallan Foster Aunty Venessa Longbottom Nessa Aunty Lorraine Lester Petra Silva Aunty Marion Russell Alyssa Silva Aunty Lola Ryan

This film has four components: to watch them click on the links below

Aunty Lehane Mason Sophie Youngberry Aunty Brenda Longbottom

Growing Up in LaPa, 41:38

Aunty Marjorie (Marge) Dixon

Elders, 7:19

Aunty Rhonda Amatto Aunty Mary Davison Aunty Rene Campbell

Language, 16:18 Shellwork, 5:25

Aunty Valerie (Nookie) Ardler

Opposite: Still from Growing up in La Pa 2021 Shallan, Aunty Nessa and Nessa

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The Shellwork Tradition The shellwork tradition has long been associated with the coastal Aboriginal communities of south-eastern Sydney suburb La Perouse and the South Coast of New South Wales. From using locally sourced shells to craft tools, fish hooks and jewellery, the more recent practice of making shellworked objects has been traced back to the 1880s, when Aboriginal women were selling shell baskets at Circular Quay and Botany Bay.

knowledge to their daughters and granddaughters – how, where and when to collect different shells, and how to sort them by type, size and colour. Sitting together in groups is an important social activity for families and relatives, while at the same time passing on knowledge and skills.

Artists often talk about taking regular shell-collecting trips to the local beaches with their families on their traditional land. This knowledge was also passed between relatives who Shellworking was encouraged by had moved from La Perouse to the missionaries working in the La Perouse South Coast. community as a way for women to generate an income. Emma Timbery, Over the past few decades shellwork an important community leader at the has increasingly been recognised time, showed her work as part of a as an important expression of display in London in 1910. In the 1920s Aboriginal cultural knowledge and and 1930s women sold shell items to tradition among women, while also tourists at the Aboriginal art and craft receiving greater acknowledgement stall at The Loop in La Perouse. By the and appreciation in the wider 1950s and 1960s, the women were art community. The intricately exhibiting their works at the NSW constructed forms of slippers, heart Royal Easter Show and at markets, shaped boxes, and Sydney Harbour fairs and department stalls alongside Bridges have become iconic objects in the carved and designed boomerangs, the story of Australian art. shields and clubs by the men.

Over several generations women in La Perouse have been learning the skills, processes and artistry associated with shellwork and passing this

Opposite: Marilyn Russell Forever La Perouse in Saltwater 2021 cardboard, fabric, shells, glitter (detail)

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Esme Timbery Born 1931, Bidjigal Lives and works in La Perouse, NSW Renowned La Perouse shell artist and elder Esme Timbery and her sister Rose Timbery (Bidjigal, born Kiama - died 2004) learned the skills for shellwork as young girls from their mothers, grandmothers and aunties, collecting and organising shells sourced from local beaches around Botany Bay and the South Coast. Like other women at La Perouse they began selling their work in the 1950s at the markets.

Next page: Esme Timbery Harbour Bridge 2003 Slippers 2011 shell, glitter, cotton, glue, cardboard University of Wollongong Art Collection

Esme is widely recognised for her shellworked objects that range from depictions of Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House to boxes and installations of her delicate slippers.

For over seven decades Esme has continued the shellwork tradition of her family and community, and has passed the associated cultural knowledge and expertise to her children and grandchildren.

Above: Esme Timbery Untitled (Harbour Bridge) 2002 polystyrene, wood, PVA glue, glitter, fabric, shell From the collection of the Sydney Opera House Trust

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My mother was a shellwork woman. We used to catch the ferry every Monday – catch the first boat over to Kurnell. The men would walk across the sand hills to Cronulla and collect a certain kind of shell. I walked it a couple of times but it was too far – I was just a kid. The women and kids would sit at Kurnell and make some food while the men would collect ‘buttons’ and ‘starries’. The women collected blue shells on the rocks at Kurnell – you had to boil them because they had a fish inside. We called them ‘gubbens’ you’d get them off the rock with a knife. There was also ‘fans’ – all colours, look like a fan. Men would come back and have something to eat and then we’d catch the last ferry home.1

– Esme Timbery

Esme Timbery recorded by Daphne Nash in ‘From shell work to shell art: Koori women creating knowledge and value on the South Coast of NSW’, craft + design enquiry, 2, Craft Australia, 2010 1

Top: Esme Timbery La Perouse Aboriginal Mission Church c.2018 cardboard, fabric, shells, glitter UNSW Art Collection

Bottom: Esme Timbery Untitled (Sydney Opera House) 2002 polystyrene, wood, PVA glue, glitter, fabric, shell From the collection of the Sydney Opera House Trust

Above: Esme Timbery and Rose Timbery Harbour Bridge 1988-1989 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection

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Left: Marilyn Russell Forever La Perouse in Saltwater 2021 cardboard, fabric, shells, glitter

Marilyn Russell Born 1952, Bidjigal Lives and works in La Perouse, NSW I started learning shellwork from my mum Esme Timbery when I was young. I have memories of collecting shells on the beach with the women in my family, with my mum and my Aunty Marg. There were a lot of shells on the La Perouse beach, but not so much anymore. Now we have to go to different

beaches to source the different shells that you like to work with. Making shellwork is very intuitive – I always start from the outside and work my way in, but you never know where it is going to go. You start with an idea and just keep going. In shellwork, no one’s work is the same. My mum and I have

completely different styles of work. The tradition of the shoes and heart boxes have been handed down from my mum, to me, and to my daughters and granddaughters – they are unique and you have to know what you are doing to make them. The shell shoes mean a lot to me. It’s our culture, our

beautiful culture that we want to keep going forever. We don’t want to lose it. This is why we are teaching it to our kids in schools and their families, and maybe one day when they get older, they will take that on.

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Phyllis Stewart

Suzanne Stewart

Born 1954, Yuin/Dharawal Lives and works in Gerringong, NSW

1972 - 2010, Yuin/Dharawal

Phyllis Stewart is an accomplished painter, weaver and shellworker with connections to La Perouse, Armidale, Wallaga Lakes on the south coast of New South Wales and the Dharawal, Yuin nations. Phyllis was taught the art of shellworking objects as a child, in particular miniature shoes, slippers and thongs. Her daughter Suzanne Stewart also learned shellworking and developed her own unique style.

Phyllis is an artist member of the Boolarng-Nangamai Aboriginal Art and Culture Studio in Gerringong and it was here that she learned to paint and to weave. Phyllis also leads the Yirran Miigaydhu (many women weavers) group for local Aboriginal women to learn the tradition of weaving at monthly meetings.

Suzanne Stewart was born in Moruya on the far South Coast of NSW in 1972. She learned shellwork from her mother Phyllis Stewart. In 2015 Phyllis Stewart was commissioned

by Wollongong Art Gallery to make Shelled Box in response to the Jewellery Box 2009 made by her daughter. Both works are part of the Wollongong Art Gallery collection and were included in their 2015-2016 exhibition Shimmer.

Above, from left: Suzanne Stewart Jewellery Box, 2009 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection Phyllis Stewart Shelled Box 2015 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection

Phyllis Stewart Slippers and High Heels 2009 shell, fabric, cardboard University of Wollongong Art Collection

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Julie Freeman Gorawarl, Jerrawongarla / Yuin and Tharawal (grandmother and grandfather’s country) Lives and work in Jervis Bay, NSW Julie Freeman, as a Gorawarl Wandandiandi woman, is a traditional owner of south Sydney and the South Coast of New South Wales.

Aunty Julie is a recognised artist, cultural leader and storyteller. Julie’s mother is of the Gurawarl Gewgal (Wonga pigeon) clan from Botany Bay (Kamay). Born on the La Perouse Aboriginal Reserve her mother comes from a long line of shellworkers and storytellers. Julie’s father was a Wreck Bay fisherman of the old tradition, born on a significant local mountain, Cullungutti. Bound by tradition and cultural practice, he was a wandandiandi man and his totem was the bumberang (jacky lizard).

Her family line has gifted her with a storyingtelling heritage and continuation of cultural practice.

Julie is inspired by family, country, culture, tradition, history and life. She and her family use the materials of country to tell the stories of country gathering reeds, shells and ochre from the shores of Wreck Bay, on the New South Wales South Coast. She says “art is how culture continues and is maintained into the future. It strengthens connection to country.

It’s my life; it’s in the blood, its family and its forever.”

Opposite: Julie Freeman Krobi – the Creation of the Gymea Lilly 2020 acrylic on French paper

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Above, clockwise from left: Julie Freeman Mood-da-ra – of the Birds (Granddaughter of Mood-tha) 2020 acrylic on French paper Mood-tha Warata – of the Blacksnake (Grandmother of Moo-dar-ra) 2020 acrylic on French paper Julie Freeman and Markeeta Freeman Mood-tha Black Snake 2021 acrylic paint on wood Opposite: Julie Freeman and Markeeta Freeman Krobi’s Cloak - Guruma Burranang Krobi 2021 possum fur and feathers

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Markeeta Freeman Gurawarl-Wandandiandi/ Waradjuri Lives and work in Jervis Bay, NSW Markeeta Freeman is a proud Aboriginal woman who was born and grew up in the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community. Markeeta is very strong in her culture, and has gained significant knowledge from her mother Julie Freeman, a Gurawarl- wandandiandi woman of the Yuin nation, and her father a Wogal man of the Wiradjuri nation.

Opposite: Julie Freeman and Markeeta Freeman Mee lee mah and Murra 2013 wood, shells, woven sedge, palm fronds

With her Environmental Science degree Markeeta has found a harmonious mix of modern science and traditional cultural perspectives.

This has allowed her to develop her artistic talents in a unique way. “Art is a way that we can look after our country. Country can’t talk for itself, we have to talk for it, and we do this thought art.”

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Above: Markeeta Freeman Mer-roo Narwu - Lighting in my blood. Lands of my Dharawal Ancestors 2021 acrylic on canvas

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Top: Markeeta Freeman Gur -ra -warl Wonga Pigeon 2013 ink on paper

Bottom: Markeeta Freeman Daring -Yan Stringray 2021 ink on paper

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Deanna Schreiber Wiradjuri, Wonnarua and Gadigal Lives and works in Cronulla, NSW Deanna Schreiber is a Gadigal women born in Sydney and has four younger brothers who were all born in Gadigal country. Her father, a Wiradjuri man, was born in the NSW Riverina country and her mother, a Wonnarua women, was from the Hunter region of New South Wales. She leads cultural education workshops for pre-school up to Year 12. Deanna is an active member of the local Aboriginal community and is Chairperson of Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation.

Deanna’s artworks tell stories about community connection. This is a common concept throughout her paintings, with the intricate circles and patterns depicting connections to country. Deanna uses festive colours to depict the Australian landscape in all its seasons. She was born of the saltwater people and this heritage is reflected in the fish and sea serpent motifs.

Opposite: Deanna Schreiber Gumnuts in the Community 2020 acrylic paint on canvas (detail)

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Top: Deanna Schreiber Wiradjuri Women Fishing 2020 acrylic on canvas

Bottom: Deanna Schreiber Goannas in the community 2017 acrylic on canvas

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Above: Deanna Schreiber Bush Cherries on Wiradjuri Country 2020 acrylic on canvas

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Annette Webb Dunghetti Lives and works in Mortdale, NSW Annette Webb is a Dunghetti woman who was raised in Newcastle where she went to school in South Cardiff.

She spent part of her childhood in Ellamatta Girls Home after being taken from her family and told her father had died. After two years her Aunty and Uncle were given permission to raise her. Annette now lives in Mortdale and has raised six children with her husband and has three grandchildren and four great grandchildren. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduating from the Eora

College and has taught Aboriginal art at Seaforth TAFE. Annette is an active member of Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation.

Annette’s paintings celebrate the memory of her mother’s flower garden and the ever-changing colours of the land where she grew up.

Her Aunt told her about when the Ancestors pass over they come back and watch over the land and she gave her permission to paint these women.

Above: Annette Webb Dunghetti Land – Swampy Creek 2020 acrylic on canvas

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Top: Annette Webb Women’s Business 2019 acrylic paint on canvas Bottom: Annette Webb Dunghetti Women Spirit Dreaming (Night Spirits) 2015 acrylic paint on canvas

Opposite: Annette Webb Stepping Stones 2021 acrylic paint on canvas

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Dolly Brown Yuin, Dungutti and Meriam Mir Lives and works in Miranda, NSW I am a proud Yuin Dungutti woman living in Dharawal Country. I’m an artist and a performing artist. I am very passionate about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

I am a long term member of Sutherland Shire Reconciliation, have a yarning circle at Orana, and was one of the founders of Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council back in the early 1980s.

Culturally it has been a very hard journey for me. ‘SORRY’ is just not going to heal the all families that have been destroyed through the Stolen Generation. Throughout Australia

Above: Dolly Brown My Mother’s Dreaming 2021 installation (detail) from left: Dolly Brown Bellbrook Mission 2021, acrylic paint on canvas Leisha Brown, Coolamon baby 2021, acrylic paint on canvas Coolamon on loan from Mary Jacobs

children were removed from their families and intergenerational trauma is something that lies within us and is very painful.

I would like to acknowledge all the strong deadly black women who allowed me to tell their stories through these dolls. We have some wonderful Aboriginal women in this community that are very proud of who they are, and proud to showcase themselves and tell their stories. They all come from different parts of the country but we are united here today and we hold hands. We walk and talk and share stories together.

Next page: Dolly Brown My Mother’s Dreaming 2021 installation (detail) dolls, photograph, found items

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Leisha (Dolly’s mum)

Leisha (Dolly’s Sister)

My name Leisha Thaiday Brown, I am a strong Dungutti Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman. I’m one of six siblings. My mum passed away giving birth to her last daughter so my dad was left raising us. He would hand make all of our clothing. My parents couldn’t speak English.

Dolly is one of my daughters. I met my husband at age 15. I remember as a nurse at age 14 when they would bring the Kinchela boys across to the hospital – a lot of the kids had bruising and broken bones as a result of the abuse at Kinchela Boys Home. It closed in the ‘70s. We loved to fish and gather oysters from Como, Grays Point and Bundeena and spent many days on the inlet with the children having camp fires, or camping on the banks. My resting place is in the Woronora Cemetery. I passed at age 68. I had a voice, my mother’s mother’s had voices that they weren’t allowed to use. My daughter has a voice and I’m damned sure that she will use it.

My name is Leisha. I am a proud Aboriginal elder from Kempsey NSW. I have lived in Sydney for most of my life. My father was William Henry Brown who worked on the saw mill in Green Hills. My mother was Leisha Thaiday Brown who worked as a nurse in the Macleay River Hospital in Kempsey. We moved to Alexandria in Sydney after my grandfather passed away, then Granville.

I helped a lot when my mother got ill – some of my duties were washing, cleaning, cooking, or making sure the other kids had clean clothes to wear to school. I moved to Zetland at 16 and started working as a nurse, which I did for over 16 years. I have three children and have lived in La Perouse and the Sutherland Shire for several years. After I finished my catering business course I moved to Rosebery-Mascot where I have been for the past 28 years.

Sheena (Dolly’s daughter) My name is Sheena and I am from the Sutherland Shire. I have lived here for all my life. I’m a local person in the community. My culture is both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. I have always lived close to the beach areas, finding it peaceful and tranquil. I am a descendant of the Dunghutti and I have given birth to my son in the Dharawal area. I am very connected to living in the country my son was born in. I am an Aboriginal historian and film producer, as well as a performing artist.

I am very connected to Mother Earth, Mother Sky and Mother Ocean. I am in touch with the land and my spirituality. I would like to pay my Respects to the Aboriginal elders past and present.

Clarissa and Kyeisha (Dolly’s daughter and granddaughter)

Jemma (Dolly’s daughter)

My name is Clarissa and I am a proud Dharawal/ Dhungutti woman from the Sutherland Shire area (Whale Country). I am interested in acting and have a strong passion for performing. I am a former Aboriginal and Saibai Islander Cultural Dancer and enjoy being on stage. I have experience and qualifications in dietetics and community services. I have worked with the disabled aged and participated in local community events, also raising money for the Narrangy Booris Aboriginal Child & Family Health Service in Menai. I believe being a part of the Sutherland Shire clan holds so much significance culturally and non-culturally. Teaching children about culture strengthens the knowledge for other community participants in this area.

My name is Jemma and I am Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, from the Dhungutti, Darug, and Meriam Mir (Thursday Island) tribes.

However I have lived on Dharawal land most of my life. Michelle (Dolly) Brown is my mum. I took up painting after one of my grandmother Leisha Brown (nee Thaiday) ancestors passed down her stories and knowledge to me. My art is unique because I am of both Aboriginal and Torres Straight descent and because of my grandmother who passed down her skills from her generation. I was always told ‘don’t you paint with just dots, it’s not traditional enough’. I have studied hospitality and business and have experience doing secretary work in Aboriginal legal aid. I am currently studying in the community service sector because I want to work with my own people, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.

Dolly (the artist)

Robin

Lisa

I am a proud Yuin Dungutti and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander from the Thaidy and Brown clans.

My mother was one of six children – five of the girls were nurses. My father was a sawmiller who also worked on the rails. I have 15 siblings: 11 brothers and four sisters. I have four children (one son and three daughters), and four grandchildren. Three of my children were born in the Dharawal area. I spent most of my time as a child in Bundeena, Como and Grays Point where we would have plenty of family gatherings and camping. I am very passionate about living and working in the community. Standing up for my community is something I feel very strongly about as our voices need to be heard. I am proud to be living in Dharawal country.

My name in Robin and I’m a proud Wiradjuri woman. I was brought up by a strong Aboriginal mother from Wellington NSW. I now reside in the Sutherland Shire. I’m a wife, a mother of two sons and a grandmother of two boys and a beautiful new granddaughter, all who are also proud to be Aboriginal. I started attending the women’s group approximately four years ago and I enjoy going to this group and have made lots of friends. I am a very proud to be a black woman.

I’m Lisa. I’m a strong Aboriginal woman belonging to the Wiradjuri tribe, originally from Wellington NSW, now living in the Sutherland Shire for over 24 years. I am a proud mum of three children.

I have the pleasure to work as an Aboriginal support worker, working with all the Aboriginal communities in Sydney. I enjoy and love what I do.

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Shalah

Julie

My name is Shalah. I am a proud Anaiwan woman (of the Armidale area) through my mother’s family, though I was born and raised in Queensland. My father’s family come from the back of Brewarrina, as best we can tell. My family are the product of the Stolen Generation, of assimilation and segregation policies, but also of love, strength, kindness, bravery, smarts and tenacity. Keeping our families together back in the day took more than miracles. I grew up strong in the belief that family and blood mean everything.

I have lived, birthed and work on Bidjigal Country.

I work with Aboriginal organisations supporting First Nations people to have or find community connection and in the aged and disability fields. I feel privileged to be part of the Sutherland Shire Reconciliation Committee. I look forward to living in a Country that’s brave enough to embrace Voice Treaty Truth.

I am a Murri woman of mixed heritage born on Darumbal land. I have lived on Wadjigu, Gangulu, Gayiri and Wangan lands, before my parents moved our family south to live on Bidjigal land.

I come from a long line of strong, resourceful, practical and caring women. When my mother was young, she would cross the creek from her parents’ home to see her Grannie daily. She learned how to make bullets, tan a hide, break in horses, track and recognise different animals.

Grannie was well known and respected. My mother was able to teach us to face challenges and to value and respect what is important. In small town Queensland, everyone knew one another and the attitude of people had become more racist. My parents decided in 1966 that more opportunity was to be had in Sydney and it was easier to “blend in.” We learnt early to stick together and look out for each other.

Penny My name is Penny and I was brought up in Newtown, and now reside in the Sutherland Shire. I am married to an Aboriginal man and have two beautiful adult children with high complex support needs. My journey of discovery is complex a challenge in every way, not an easy way forward, obstacles, but I am a fighter and I have to do this myself. Being involved and enjoying the cultural connections through the women’s group has given me empowerment to make myself heard to keep fighting what is clearly right. I am still on a personal journey of discovery.

This is part of my story.

Opposite: Dolly Brown My Mother’s Dreaming 2021 installation (detail) coolamon on loan from Mary Jacobs

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Jemma Kitchener Dhungutti, Darug, and Meriam Mir Lives and works in Miranda, NSW Dreaming stories of past, present, future, culture and diversity. The history of my work goes back to my ancestors’ knowledge that’s been passed down from generation to generation. I always think of ancestors painting the land what we stand on.

Painting the sea that is our source of food, painting the lines representing travel and journey, painting the animals our men hunted, and gathering of the bush tucker our woman journeyed for.

My family journeyed to and from the Dharawal area sourcing bush tucker from the land here.

I took up painting after my grandmother Leisha Brown passed down her stories and knowledge to me. I also got inspired by other Aboriginal mentors in the community, Jeremy Devitt and Adam Hill. I have also had lessons from artist Lee Bethel.

My cultural background is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, from the Dhungutti, Darug, and Meriam Mir tribes. However I have lived on Dharawal land most of my life. I am currently studying in the community service sector because I want to work with my own people, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.

Top: Jemma Kitchener Binyang and the Magura 2021 acrylic on canvas

Bottom: Jemma Kitchener Whale Dreaming 2021 acrylic on canvas

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Jemma Kitchener Megababung nanga mai – Women Dreaming 2021 acrylic on canvas This megababung (woman) went on a journey. It all started with a duggara (cold) feeling. She looked at the garaguru (clouds) and started to see the bamal (earth), which she knew needed walan (rain). Her attention was drawn to the gura (wind), which made the djiwaxra (hairs) stand up on her skin. The clouds depicted women, which changed to man. The guwing (sun) and the yanada (moon) communicated together with the land, she could see fires coming on the mountains. She looked towards the clouds, warning that the animals

were thirsty and at risk of a dangerous obsessive man.

She felt her feet get really large and her legs began to grow as a heavy weight was upon her shoulders. The earth responded and said ‘it’s me, bamal.’ She grew up and up until she reached the warriwal (Milky Way) where she looked down and saw the burri burri (whales). Then she knew she would return home safely, as scared as she was, and it took her months to get better.

A note on language: the above language words are taken from The Sydney Language book

by Jakelin Troy (published in 1994). The book includes an extended compilation of “Sydney Language” words from multiple dialects associated with the Sydney area, recorded during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Amy Hill-Trindall Kamilaroi Lives and works Illawong, NSW I am an artist from the Kamilaroi Mob and a Sutherland Shire local. My work is about our spiritual connection to the dreaming.

As a child, I was always in touch with Aboriginal art. I would draw for hours on end instead of doing my school work. My Aunty Lex (Alexis Trindall) has always been a massive inspiration for me and I have spent a lot of time painting and learning from her. Later in life I found that painting was great therapy for me. During this time I was supported by Aunty Deanna (Schreiber) to continue painting for myself and my happiness. I love colours and the way they help to tell a story.

Above: Amy Hill-Trindall Mother Earth 2021 acrylic paint on canvas

All my life I have lived along the Georges and Woronora Rivers on Dharawal Country. I have been an active member of the Aboriginal community here since I was a child. I have gained my experience working with elders learning about Aboriginal art for many years and love to share my art using traditional symbols in artistic stories.

I’m inspired to teach my own children about our culture. I enjoy creating designs and I embrace telling those stories. I hope my artworks and workshop experiences bring understanding and joy.

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Opposite: Amy Hill-Trindall Ancestor Spirit 2021 acrylic paint on canvas

Top: Amy Hill-Trindall Women’s Business 2020 digital drawing

Bottom: Amy Hill-Trindall Journey of Growth 2021 digital drawing

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Kerry Toomey Gamilaroi Lives and works in Bundeena, NSW Kerry Toomey is a Gamilaroi woman who grew up in Pilliga, in northwestern New South Wales. Inspired by stories of family, her mourning caps are layered with cultural artefacts that connect the artist to her Country. In particular, she has been inspired by her Auntie Josie Bri Haines whose earthenware ‘Widows mourning cap’ – now kept in the NGV collection – are reminiscent of those worn by Gamilaroi women when their husbands died. These work encourage the audience to engage in the stories that have been kept “under their hats”.

Toomey uses tissues to create her works as that can be easily moulded into a shape. The delicate forms are

Opposite: Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 (detail) installation - various materials

then combined with ochre, echidna quills, emu feathers, quandong seeds, leaves and flowers to connect her to Country. Lace creates intricate patterns that represent Colonial Australia hidden in the layers as she grows and changes in a country that is now starting to listen.

Hats and caps are items of fashion.

Toomey created family portraits where she asked that they ochre up.

They were immersed in a practice that engaged in a personal time of reflection to preserve the future. They felt the connection to family, taking time to remember loved ones who had passed on, reflecting on a history of being connected to each other.

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Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 installation tissues, ochre, emu feathers, echidna quills, quandong seeds, leaves, flowers, lace, embroidery thread, found objects, Tindale documents, photographs

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Merindah Funnell Wiradjuri Lives and works in Cronulla, NSW Merindah Funnell is a southern Sydney based artist born on Dharawal land and a proud female Wiradjuri artist.

Her mother is a Wiradjuri woman from the Western Plains of NSW. Merindah’s great grandfather is the famous Alex Riley (‘Black Tracker Riley’) from Dubbo NSW. Merindah’s father grew up in the Sutherland shire.

artist produced a unique and interactive book inspired by Dharawal culture with significant animals and plants alongside their Dharawal words. She worked with elders and educators including Mary Jacobs and the late Uncle Les Bursill OAM.

Merindah has developed this new series of large scale prints from her book, each In 2018 Merindah created the illustrated individually digitally coloured, especially children’s colouring book Dharawal: for this exhibition.

Counting and Colouring. Combining themes of land, ocean and country, the

Merindah Funnell Diamond Python – Mokka / Teatree – Bann Bann 2021 coloured digital drawing

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Merindah Funnell Illustrations from Dharawal: Counting and Colouring 2021 coloured digital drawings

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Top row:

Emu – Mariyang Lamandra – Lomandra

Bottom row:

Stingray – Daring yan Mangrove – Baa lun

Echidna – Gnai Stinging Nettle – Goo-mao-mah

Lace Monitor – Jindoala Gymea Lily – Gymea

Wonga pigeon – Wonga Wonga Lilli pilli – Tdjerail

Orca – Guwural Neptune’s Necklace

Longfin eel – Burra Bullrush – Mundham Undha

Diamond Python – Mokka Teatree – Bann Bann

Dingo – Mirra gang Bottlebrush

Lyrebird – Djaw ula Waratah – Manu Guwan

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Strong Sister Aboriginal girls from Endeavour Sports High Matilda Delfs (Wiradjuri) Sarah Etheridge (Ngarigo) Marley Monie Alecia Scott (Wiradjuri) Reneigh Scott (Wiradjuri) Tamara Scott (Wiradjuri) Skye Wackwitz (Kamilaroi) Coordinators: Rick O’Brien (Ngarigo) and Bruce Howell (Wiradjuri) The Strong Sister program started around 10 years ago at Endeavour Sports High and aims to bring Aboriginal girls together and install pride in their culture. The program empowers the girls to embrace their culture, gain strength from coming together and gain knowledge through culture that they can share with others. To develop their knowledge they go on Country and view engravings and drawings which are then translated into murals. The murals, which are found throughout the Sutherland Shire, bring about an awareness of local art and culture that can be shared with the rest of the community.

of Dharawal women and enabled them to provide food for their families.

The representations of the animals are based on engravings on sandstone and drawings in shelters located within 10km of the gallery. Most of these engravings and drawings include characteristics that enable the species to be determined. The whales in the top left and bottom centre are based on engravings that still exist on Burraneer Point. The stingray engraving is located at Jibbon.

The three salmon (located under the whale) are engravings hidden under grass near Darook Park. The fish in the bottom left are engravings hidden under leaf litter at the back Burri Burri Dhan Dreaming includes of Bundeena. The dolphin engraving two representations of whales, which is in Gooseberry Bay off South West are very important in local Dharawal Arm. The large blue fish is based on an culture because the whales bring the engraving at Tuckawa Rill in the Royal Lore to the Dharawal people. The story National Park. The central group of is about some of the marine life that fish engravings are located at Muddy were fished by women in the many Creek in the Royal National Park. The waterways of the region and which garfish and eel drawings were found formed an important part of the local in shelters located at Woronora and diet. Fishing was one of the key roles Alfords Point.

Previous page and above: Strong Sister: Aboriginal girls from Endeavour Sports High Burri Burri Dhan Dreaming 2021 mural

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Artist Film View interviews with the artists in Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stories

Above: Still from Wuliwulawala Artist Film Dolly Brown

Opposite: Amy Hill-Trindall Yarning circle 2021 (detail) digital drawing and installation

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List of Works Dolly Brown

Julie Freeman

Amy Hill-Trindall

My Mother’s Dreaming 2021 installation: dolls, photograph, found items, coolamon on loan from Mary Jacobs

Krobi – the Creation of the Gymea Lilly 2020 acrylic on French paper (pair)

Women’s Business 2020 digital drawing

Bellbrook Mission 2021 acrylic on canvas

Mood-tha Warata – of the Blacksnake (Grandmother of Moo-dar-ra) 2020 acrylic on French paper

Journey of Growth 2021 digital drawing

Mood-da-ra – of the Birds (Granddaughter of Mood-tha) 2020 acrylic on French paper

Ancestor Spirit 2021 acrylic paint on canvas

Leisha Brown Coolamon Baby 2021 acrylic on canvas Merindah Funnell Illustrations from Dharawal: Counting and Colouring 2021 coloured digital drawings including: Diamond Python – Mokka Teatree – Bann Bann Lace Monitor – Jindoala Gymea Lily – Gymea Echidna – Gnai Stinging Nettle – Goo-mao-mah Orca – Guwural Neptune’s Necklace Emu – Mariyang Lamandra – Lomandra Stingray – Daring yan Mangrove – Baa lun Lyrebird – Djaw ula Waratah – Manu Guwan Wonga pigeon – Wonga Wonga Lilli pilli – Tdjerail Dingo – Mirra gang Bottlebrush Longfin eel – Burra Bullrush – Mundham Undha

Markeeta Freeman Mer-roo Narwu - Lighting in my blood. Lands of my Dharawal Ancestors 2021 acrylic on canvas Gur -ra -warl Wonga Pigeon 2013 ink on paper Daring -Yan Stringray 2021 ink on paper Julie Freeman and Markeeta Freeman Krobi’s Cloak - Guruma Burranang Krobi 2021 possum fur and feathers Mood-tha Black Snake 2021 acrylic paint on wood Mee lee mah and Murra 2013 wood, shells, woven sedge, palm fronds

Healing Spirit 2021 digital drawing

Mother Earth 2021 acrylic paint on canvas

Jemma Kitchener Binyang and the Magura 2021 acrylic on canvas Megababung nanga mai – Women Dreaming 2021 acrylic on canvas Whale Dreaming 2021 acrylic on canvas Marilyn Russell Forever La Perouse in Saltwater 2021 cardboard, fabric, shells, glitter Deanna Schreiber all acrylic paint on canvas Bush Cherries on Wiradjuri Country 2020 Communities and stepping stones 2019 Goannas in the community 2017 Gumnuts in the Community 2020

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Murrumbidgee River - billabong, turtles, and the Yowie - creator of freshwater rivers and streams in Wiradjuri Country 2018 Turtle dreaming and bush nuts 2019 Wiradjuri Women Fishing 2020 Phyllis Stewart Shelled Box 2015 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection Purchased 2016 Shoes, Slippers, Thongs 2002 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection Purchased 2002 Miniature baskets 2009 cordiline, raffia, cane, Kurrajong bark, emu foot sedge, matt rush, soft twig sedge, bangalow palm, paperback, leather, wire University of Wollongong Art Collection Purchased 2011

Strong Sister: Aboriginal girls from Endeavour Sports High Matilda Delfs, Sarah Etheridge, Marley Monie, Alecia Scott, Reneigh Scott, Tamara Scott, Skye Wackwitz Coordinators: Rick O’Brien, Bruce Howell Burri Burri Dhan Dreaming 2021 mural Esme Timbery La Perouse Aboriginal Mission Church c.2018 cardboard, fabric, shells, glitter Purchased 2020 UNSW Art Collection Untitled (Harbour Bridge) 2002 polystyrene, wood, PVA glue, glitter, fabric, shell From the collection of the Sydney Opera House Trust Untitled (Sydney Opera House) 2002 polystyrene, wood, PVA glue, glitter, fabric, shell From the collection of the Sydney Opera House Trust

Thongs, Slippers, High Heels 2009 Cardboard, fabric and shells University of Wollongong Art Collection Purchased 2011

Harbour Bridge 2003 shell, glitter, cotton, glue, cardboard University of Wollongong Art Collection Purchased 2003

Suzanne Stewart

Slippers fabric, shells, glitter, glue, cardboard 2011 University of Wollongong Art Collection Purchased 2011

Jewellery Box 2009 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection Purchased 2016

Esme Timbery and Rose Timbery Harbour Bridge 1988-1989 shell, fabric, cardboard Wollongong Art Gallery Collection Purchased 1997 Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 installation tissues, ochre, emu feathers, echidna quills, quandong seeds, leaves, flowers, lace, embroidery thread, found objects, Tindale documents Hello friend! Yaama maliyaa!

My family – Ngay dhilyaan 2021 photographic prints Annette Webb all acrylic paint on canvas Circles of Life 2020 Dunghetti Land – Swampy Creek 2020 Dunghetti Women Spirit Dreaming (Night Spirits) 2015 Mum’s Garden 2020 My Travels 2021 Stepping Stones 2021 Women’s Business 2019 Yarning Circle

by Amy Hill-Trindall digital drawing and installation

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Acknowledgements Hazelhurst Arts Centre acknowledges the Dharawal speaking people, traditional custodians of the land on which Hazelhurst stands, and pays respects to elders past, present and emerging.

SPECIAL THANKS Special thanks to our exhibition partners: La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council (LPLALC), Gujaga Foundation and Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation.

Thank you especially to Noelene Timbery (LPLALC Chairperson), Ray Ingrey (LPLALC Deputy Chairperson, Chris Ingrey (LPLALC CEO), Stacey Foster (LPLALC Project Officer) and Sophie Youngberry (Language, Culture and Research Officer, Gujaga Foundation) for their assistance with this project. Thank you to the Sutherland Shire Aboriginal Advisory Committee for their guidance and a special thanks to Aunty Deanna Schreiber (Chairperson) and Bruce Howell (Deputy Chairperson). Many thanks to all the artists and contributors for sharing their stories with us. A special thanks to Graham Avery, Sutherland Shire Council Natural Areas Aboriginal Heritage Officer, who introduced us to the story of Biddy Giles, which was then the catalyst for this project. Thank you to Create NSW for their support, and thank you to Hazelhurst’s Principle Partners The Holt Estate and Moran Aged Care for supporting Hazelhurst and its program.

EXHIBITION PROJECT TEAM Artists: Dolly Brown, Merindah Funnell, Julie Freeman, Markeeta Freeman, Amy Hill-Trindall, Jemma Kitchener, Marilyn Russell, Deanna Schreiber, Phyllis Stewart, Suzanne Stewart, Esme Timbery, Kerry Toomey, Annette Webb, and Strong Sister: Aboriginal girls from Endeavour Sports High Carrie Kibbler: Curator, Hazelhurst Arts Centre Naomi Stewart: Assistant Curator, Hazelhurst Arts Centre

Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stories 17 April – 14 June 2021

HAZELHURST STAFF: Director: Belinda Hanrahan Curator: Carrie Kibbler Assistant Curator: Naomi Stewart Public Programs & Education Coordinator: Kate Milner Public Programs & Education Officer: Samantha Relihan Marketing Coordinator: Viola Soliman Marketing Coordinator: Robyn Bambury Acting Arts Centre Coordinator: Cameron Ward Team Leader Visitor Services & Administration: Caryn Schwartz Administration Coordinator: Vilma Hodgson Administration Assistant: Giada Cantini Visitor Service Assistant: Hannah McClarren Gallery Shop Manager: Neta Mariakis Exhibition Preparators: Gilbert Grace, Paul Williams, Jenny Tubby, Spence Messih, Brendan Van Hek

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia

© 2021 Hazelhurst Arts Centre 782 Kingsway Gymea NSW 2227 Australia T: 61 2 8536 5700 E: hazelhurst@ssc.nsw.gov.au www.hazelhurst.com.au ISBN 978-1-921437-87-8

All text copyright Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Gujaga Foundation and the Artists Image credits: Silversalt Photography unless otherwise specified cover page: from left (detail), Suzanne Stewart Jewellery Box 2009, shell, fabric, cardboard, and Phyllis Stewart Shelled Box 2015, shell, fabric, cardboard.

Wollongong Art Gallery Collection.

Photo: Bernie Fischer page 2-3: Amy Hill Women’s Business 2020 (detail), digital drawing. Courtesy of the artist page 4: Kerry Toomey Styled on Country 2021 (detail), installation page 30: Photo Bernie Fischer page 59: Photo courtesy the artist page 76: Annette Webb Mum’s Garden 2020 (detail), acrylic on canvas Videography: Constantine Productions

Exhibition Partners

Principle Partners