Home: Aboriginal art from New South Wales

The artworks in this section draw inspiration from the distinct cultural forms and practices of the south-east, highlighting their importance for artists of this region today.

The works refer to objects such as possum-skin cloaks, wooden shields and woven forms, while capturing systems of knowledge that relate to the south-east.

Badger Bates
born 1947
Barkandji, Wilcannia/Broken Hill, Southern Riverine region

William ‘Badger’ Bates was born in Wilcannia, on Barkandji (Baakantji/Paakantji) country, and grew up on the banks of the Darling River in a tin hut. At eight years old, his grandmother, Granny Moysey, taught him the art of carving emu eggs and he later learned to carve boomerangs, clubs and shields through watching his uncles. As a young boy, Bates travelled throughout NSW with his grandmother to avoid being taken away by the Aborigines Welfare Board. While moving from place to place, Granny Moysey taught Bates his Barkandji culture, language and knowledge. An expert wood carver, Bates is also known for his linocuts and printing, a new medium that retains the traditional process of carving.

I never went to art school in my life; I went to a mission school in Wilcannia, the old people that passed on, like old Granny and other people, when I’m doing my artwork, all I do is hold the chisel and a hammer and they make me do the work and I just hold it, because they passed on and their spirit, I feel their spirits around me and they just help me with it. When I’m carving I go back to my childhood when the old people was around, I feel that by doing my carving I’m not letting her [Granny] down or the old people that learned me carving. I still carry it on, what they taught me and I just like doing it.

— Badger Bates, 2008

Cheryl Davison
born 1965
Walbunga/Yuin, Tilba Tilba, South-east region

Cheryl Davison is a member of the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal community near Bermagui on the far South Coast. Her mother’s family are Walbanga people of the Yuin nation from Eurobodalla and the Ngarigo people of the Snowy Mountains region. Her grandfather’s generation were still performing ceremonies into the early 1900s at Wallaga Lake. Davison has an unbroken connection to country that is evident in her work, which draws on cultural knowledge, addressing important creation narratives for the South Coast.

Julie Freeman
born 1957
Gorawral/Jerrawongarla, Wreck Bay, South-east region

The NSW South Coast is home to the Yuin and Tharawal (Dharawal) nations, their country bordered by the Great Dividing Range and the rugged coastline. Although the region has undergone massive change since colonisation, local culture has remained strong, embedded in country and in the care of senior custodians and knowledge-holders like artist Julie Freeman. A recognised artist, cultural leader and storyteller, Freeman documents significant cultural sites on the South Coast, firmly placing the region within an Indigenous cultural framework.

Families tell their stories from up and down the coast, which fills in any gaps; then the whole image of the South Coast forms. Stories spread out and glue it all together and art is a way of strengthening that. Artists are saying that this is really important and feel they have to make something beautiful as well. Down the South Coast it’s really strong.

— Julie Freeman, 1997

Lola Ryan
1925–2003
Tharawal/Eora, Sydney, South-east region

Tharawal/Eora artist Lola Ryan grew up in the Aboriginal community of La Perouse, or La Per, in Kamay (Botany Bay). Along with her sister Mavis Longbottom, Ryan and many other shell artists learned their practice from the family matriarchs, with family styles and designs often handed down. Ryan began to exhibit her work within galleries in the late 1990s and she quickly became celebrated for her experimental style and artistic vision. Like many women from La Per, the iconic landmark of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a favoured subject yet also a poignant symbol: it stands for the artist’s ability to transcend boundaries and provide a richer understanding of the Sydney landscape.

Reko Rennie
born 1974
Kamilaroi, Northern Riverine region, Melbourne, South-east region

Reko Rennie is a Kamilaroi artist based in Melbourne whose works explore issues of Aboriginal identity within an urban environment. His commanding works are largely biographical and combine the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with stylistic elements of graffiti and street art. He is most recognised for large-scale site-specific works using his trademark use of a repeated diamond pattern in hard-edge form and brilliant colours synonymous with street art. The diamond forms are drawn from the dendroglyphs (carved trees) found in Kamilaroi country.

Roy Barker Senior
1928–2012
Muruwari, Lightning Ridge, Northern Riverine region

Roy Barker Senior was born in 1928 on the banks of the Darling River at the old Brewarrina Mission Station in northern NSW. Recognised as an expert wood carver and a cultural knowledge-holder, Barker inherited much of his knowledge and skills from his father and many of the old uncles who he grew up with. Working in distinctive gidgee and mulga woods, Barker produced what he termed ‘the Muruwari arsenal of weapons’: woomera and spears, woganurra (battle axe), nulla nulla (club), lil lil (throwing stick), wogathr (returning boomerang) and marli (fighting and killer boomerangs). Barker’s elegant shapes and forms are often emphasised by his ability to incorporate the blond streaks of the timber to highlight the designs.

This display represents the arsenal of Muruwari weapons I learnt to make as a boy whilst growing up on the Brewarrina Aboriginal Mission Station over 70 years ago. As I sat in the wood heap with my uncles carving the weapons, they taught me how to make these particular weapons and explained how they were used to survive in the vast open country of the rivers and plains. I was always grateful to my uncles for passing this knowledge to me.

— Roy Barker Senior, 2007