Aboriginal artists across Ngunnawal country use their paintings to reflect their own personal culture, identity, and healing journeys, while teaching all people to embrace the traditional owners. In this series, we speak with five artists living on Ngunnawal country who share their individual stories of growing up on country, cultural connection and healing their minds through art.
First up is proud Ngunnawal and Kamilaroi man, Richie Allan.
“My mum is Ngunnawal and my dad is Kamilaroi. I was born in Ngunnawal country and grew up here, but for a large part of my life I grew up on Walhallow Mission,” Mr Allan said.
“Art has always been a massive part of my life and growing up on country has played a big role in my identity and cultural practices.”
Reminiscing on his time at Walhallow Mission (in Gunnedah Shire, NSW), Mr Allan speaks fondly of learning from his elders how to create art and keep his culture alive.
“A lot of the art we did in the dirt because canvases weren’t around on the mission, they cost a lot of money. We drew in the mud, the dirt, the trees and our artwork was about keeping country alive – ensuring out plants were growing and our rivers were flowing. That’s the real artwork,” he said.
“We paint to reflect country, and what it was like before European settlement.”
Mr Allan’s art is very traditional. He likes to paint with sticks, flowers and leaves he finds on the ground, but his favourite style is painting with his hands using a variety of different colours.
He said when people think of Indigenous art, they generally correlate it with ochry, earth colours, but his people use a range of colours to reflect the bush medicines and the native wildlife.
“The purples and pinks show our bush medicines, and bright yellows all represent the birds that hang around here, like the yellow and black cockatoos that all belong to this area.”
While Mr Allan has many favourite artworks, the one that stands out for him the most is a piece he did for NAIDOC Week depicting the three rivers that flow out of the ACT – the northern Yass that meets up with the Molonglo which flows down into the Murrumbidgee River.
He hopes the message of reconciliation is portrayed through his artwork, and said he encourages all Australians to learn and embrace Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as he believes it’s the only way we will achieve peace and equality.
“If people look at culture and art from our eyes, they will understand what county and painting means to us. Let’s have our art everywhere!” Mr Allan said.
“Wouldn’t it be great for government buildings and people’s homes to have our art and embody the Ngunnawal people? We are the traditional owners and that’s what people need to embrace, and go and enjoy our art, culture and country.”
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