St Albans Gallery

1
St Albans Gallery
M e d i a R e l e a s e
Wharf St, St Albans Ph/Fax [phone] Open
11am5pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Edna Marion Watson and Friends June 3 - July 9
This exhibition comprises a diverse range of work
by artists Edna Mariong Watson her husband
Allan Watson her son Ian Bundeluk Watson her
daughter Leanne Mulgo Wright and close friend
Kevin Chief Pierpoint. The Watson family and
friends are integral to the richly evolving arts
of the Darug people of the Hawkesbury Region.
Growing in reputation, their works can be found
in galleries and private collections that span
the continent and the globe.
(cont. over)
Kutujulung. In describing her work Edna said,
The turtle is swimming in the ocean with
multi-coloured fish swimming below it. The
tortoise is our totem and we are walking on our
land with multi-coloured people who now live with
us on our land.
Kutujulung
2
St Albans Gallery
Wharf St, St Albans Ph 4568 2286 11am 5pm
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Edna and her family are direct descendants of
Darug tribal Elder Gombeeree (born c.1740), and
his son Yarramundi (born c. 1760). Over the past
two decades they have contributed greatly to the
fuller appreciation and understanding of the true
significance and value of Darug culture and
heritage, and to ensuring it carries on to future
generations. In 1999 more than 100 people
attended the unveiling of a memorial to
Yarramundi at Macquarie Park on the banks of the
Hawkesbury River. Representatives of the three
tiers of government joined together to
acknowledge the Boorerborongal tribe of the Darug
nations as the original owners of the land. Edna
addressed the gathering and provided a rock
carving which represents the meeting of European
settlers with the Aboriginal people. Edna and
her family and friends live and paint in close
proximity to their Darug traditional tribal land.
The work in this exhibition represents lived
experiences as well as stories and customs of
traditional Darug culture and features paintings,
carvings and didgeridoos.
About the Gallery Curator Suzie Startin is
committed to presenting and nurturing work by
artists with strong connections to the region.
Paintings, sculpture, printmaking, photography,
jewellery, textiles and unique sculptural and
functional pieces in wood are exhibited.
About Edna, her family friends Edna Mariong
Watson (Mariong meaning Emu) A senior
member and highly respected spokesperson of the
Darug Tribe, Edna has been invited by schools,
higher educational institutions and government to
provide views and insights to Darug culture. She
and her two sisters are called upon to do Welcome
to Country speeches at many venues and openings
in their Darug language. Edna is a Hawkesbury
Darug artist and elder and has been painting for
twelve years.
(cont.
over)
Turtle carving
3
St Albans Gallery
Wharf St, St Albans Ph 4568 2286 11am 5pm
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Born at Blacktown on her tribal land, her mother
was Darug and her father English. Edna is a
self-taught artist who raised six children, drove
semi-trailers and cut sugar cane with her husband
in South East Queensland before embarking on her
visual arts career in 1990. She has participated
in a number of significant group and solo
exhibitions throughout Sydney and was involved in
a specialist exhibition of indigenous art
presented as part of the Olympic Games
celebration activities through Macquarie
University. Ednas work has been sold from art
galleries and her home art studio to individuals
and organisations in Brazil, New Zealand, Africa,
USA, Canada, Germany, Malta, Switzerland,
England, Philippines, Russia, Holland and Italy.
In 2005 Edna designed the Opening Plaque for the
Hawkesbury Deerubbin Centre which features the
first meeting between her ancestor Yarramundi and
Governor Arthur Philip. Kristina Everett,
Lecturer in Anthropology and Indigenous Studies
at Macquarie University is currently compiling a
biography of Ednas life. Allan Watson Married
to Edna, and sharing her passion and commitment
to the rights and cultural heritage of the Darug
people, Allan also embraced the arts later in
his life and has been a wood carver for the past
ten years. He makes didgeridoos using traditional
techniques and carves snakes out the roots of the
trees. He also makes walking sticks, coolomans,
clap sticks and bowls. Leanne Mulgo Wright and
Ian Bundeluk Watson (Mulgo meaning Black Swan
) (Bundeluk meaning Rosella) Leanne and Ian,
like their mother Edna paint and are in demand as
artists in their own right. Kevin Chief
Pierpoint Kevin is a Nimpa man from central NSW.
He can paint with any medium and paints
landscapes, portraits and aboriginal art. He is
also a woodcarver and didge maker. Kevin has
taught aboriginal youths dancing and had a show
at the Opera House.
(cont. over)
4
St Albans Gallery
Wharf St, St Albans Ph 4568 2286 11am 5pm
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
About the Darug Tribe With a 28,000 year
history of living in the Richmond-Windsor area of
Western Sydney the people of the Darug Tribe
(which currently consists of over 300 direct
descendants) have a vast cultural heritage to
pass on to future generations and to share with
the world. The Darug Tribe consisted of a number
of clans that had traditional rights to
significant or sacred sites in their region. The
clans had specific rights to fish, hunt and
gather food on their land. And, in accordance
with tribal law, these activities were limited to
only taking sufficient food and other resources
necessary for survival. This caring and
respectful relationship with the land is a
cornerstone of Aboriginal culture. In Aboriginal
mythology, the Dreamtime, all people were created
from animals, which then became their totems.
These totemic animals are an integral element of
Darug and other Aboriginal art. Edna Marion
Watsons family totem is the tortoise
(Kutujulung), which appears in many of her
paintings.
For interviewsand further information contact
Suzie Startin on ph 4568 2286 Email
stalbansgallery_at_myisp.net.au St Albans Gallery,
Wharf St, St Albans Opening Hours 11am 5pm
Friday, Saturday, Sunday