I completed my Archibald Prize entry today, although it was unsuccessful in being selected twice (I also tried the Portia Geach Award) I believe this is because of the spiritual nature of the work. I depicted my childhood friend and local Aboriginal elder Theresa Ardler using collected ochre pigments, including the pipeclay gifted to me by the late Laddie Timbery, which I used to paint traditional dots around her eyes. The red is terrestrial, and represents the blood of Ancestral women and Theresa’s experience of blood loss (she has experienced her own death). The gold is visceral and rich like emu fat and expresses the wealth culture holds in the heart, while the black charcoal is cerebral and swirls like nebula or ethereal thoughts. I added a touch of gold oil paint on her gold earring. Initially we had spoken about adding possum pelts leftover from her completed and in-progress budbilli (possum skin cloaks). I used tracing paper to draw shapes and cut some out of the pelt. But when I lay it the soft fur in position, I thought it detracted from the ochre painting. The original shroud was a mother and baby possum from summer 2015, which called to me and Theresa in my studio as she shared her loss of baby Marley Jessie George Ardler. The mother possum stains evoke her cloak and the baby stains eerily become the body of her baby seated on her knee. Since painting Theresa, her spiritual path has led to a momentous encounter. She was the last person to meet with Pope Frances in Rome before he passed away.

Possum Pietà 2024, collected earth pigments, charcoal, gold oil paint, aquarelle, rabbit skin glue, mother and baby possum (summer 2015) on canvas. 98 cm x 115cm. $2260

Thanks to Michael at Shoalhaven Picture Framing (see SCR article image)

The selection of materials for ‘Respect This Place (After Uncle Laddie)’ 2022 communicate my personal response to the Halloran collection (HC). As a local woman growing up in Vincentia, like my mother before me, I have a deep sense of belonging to this place shared with Aboriginal friends and mentors. A significant mentor, Uncle Laddie, gifted me the pipeclay featured in this artwork and his words and handwriting ‘respect this place’ inspired the work and feature on an object in JBMM. This work pays tribute to Laddie’s lifelong work as a cross-cultural teacher and activist based at JBMM.

The paper support was soaked and stained c.10 years ago in the billabong near my childhood home. It is a place frequented by both my mother and her brothers and my siblings and I as children. I feel the presence of my ancestral spirits here. My grandparents, Keith and Gloria Sheehy purchased land from Warren Halloran in c.1955 across from the creek that feeds this billabong. The HC features maps recording Warren’s ownership and sale of the land that created Vincentia village. I chose to represent the instruments of nautical navigation and terrestrial surveying in the HC, as they are symbols of the colonisation and subsequent land sales in Vincentia.

In the Shoalhaven, colonisation began with Alexander Berry pictured in ‘Respect This Place’ using his sextant from the HC. His body merges with the graphometer to become the instrument of colonisation. His words ‘For many years I have reaped my harvest’ also feature in JBMM. Opposing Berry is a stylised representation of an Aboriginal hunter inscribed on a whale tooth from the HC. Cupping the graphometer on the left is a drawing of the breast plate worn by ‘Budd Billy’, who also featured in the JBMM photograph of a local corroboree pictured.