a journey shared ..

The Warangesda: Deep Waters is the next chapter in what has become such a quintessential component of the Griffith Regional Art Gallery's annual exhibition calendar, I think it's the fourth collaboration with Western Riverina Arts and local and regional Aboriginal Artists.
This exhibition explores the Warangesda 'Camp of Mercy' Mission through the eyes of the artist. Significantly this is project of collaboration between the Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Western Riverina Arts and National Parks, Wiradjuri community Elders, The Aboriginal Medical Service and the Aboriginal land council.



I have known of the mission for many years, but like most, it was scant, however Stan Grant's contribution to the Ethics Council debate 2015: Racism is Destroying the Australian Dream, was a powerful and emotive call to me that I needed to know more.

"My people were rounded up and put on missions from where if you escaped, you were hunted down, you were roped and tied and dragged back, and it happened here. It happened on the mission that my grandmother and my great grandmother are from, the Warrengesda on the Darling Point of the Murrumbidgee River." Stan Grant Ethics Centre NSW

On my visit today to the gallery, I was reminded by Hape Kiddle that while we often see the history as one-sided, the journey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders since the First Fleet rocked up in Sydney Cove, has in fact been a shared journey.

Now this history is well known in Aboriginal families, but largely unknown to the rest of us, so indulge me while I recount a very (very) brief history lesson, before i mention the Exhibition.

We have mostly heard the story of colonial Australia from the perspective of the new arrivals and their "exploration" and "opening up" of the country as they expanded out from Sydney, rarely have we heard the other side of that story, told from the perspective of the Aboriginal people who have lived here for at least the last 60,000 years, their story of loss of hunting grounds, access to water, illnesses that decimated clans, or the "Frontier wars" that was carried on for 146 years.

The first fighting took place several months after the landing of the First Fleet in January 1788 and the last clashes occurred as late as 1934. (Australian Frontier Wars)

Over 30,000 Aboriginals died as a result of this ongoing war, whether through direct violence or the result of displacement, illness or injury. However not all relationships between Black and White were harmful, some started with the very best of intention, and Warangesda Mission had that sort of beginning.

Paul Gribble's Great Grandfather, Rev. John Gribble, a Pastor with the Congregational Church at Jeriderie, in the parish of Deniliquin established the Warangesda Mission in an attempt to bring some hope and dignity to what he was witnessing across the his parish at the time. Relations between new settlers and local Wiradjuri people had not been great and in 1841 settlers attacked and killed a number of Wiradjuri on what is now called Massacre Island which is about 8 - 9 kms south of Narranderra on the Murrumbidgee. In the years that followed, local Aboriginals were treated poorly by settlers, used as cheap labour, or shot on sight, removed from traditional lands and increasingly dependent on handed out rations.

"On one of his religious journeys he targeted the Darlington Point area. Gribble visited many outlying stations on this journey, where he not only preached but witnessed first hand the shocking treatment received by the blacks and the dreadful conditions under which they were forced to live.

Darlington Point itself was a den of inequity on the Murrumbidgee. There was a traffic in blacks and the carnal interests of the white men would brook no interference. He returned to Jerilderie, determined, with God’s help, to establish a Maloga style Mission Station in close proximity to the town of Darlington Point." The Camp of Mercy by Beverley Gulambali Elphick and Don Elphick

Rev Gribble resigned his post and with his family moved to Darlington Point and began to establish a mission, he did this on his own resources and surprisingly the powers at be were very unhappy, and he was told by authorities to stop the mission. A trip to Sydney and 2 months passed before he was given permission to establish a "school for Black Children"

"Fifteen white children and twenty seven Aboriginal children were registered and with an average attendance of 30, housed in a room twenty feet by twelve feet the school was very overcrowded. This mix of Aboriginal and white students was contrary to the regulations of the Department of Public Instruction, which required separate schools. Gribble also set up an evening class for young adult Aborigines, who could not read or write."The Camp of Mercy

Rev. Gribble and his reputation for fairness and kindness grew and the mission became a safe haven for Aboriginal families across the region escaping the cruel treatment metered out to them by settlers. This was not viewed well by others, who increasingly tried to find ways to undermine what the mission was doing. He and his family ran the mission from 1880 to 1885.

The historic Aboriginal occupation of Warangesda was characterised by a relatively self sufficient Aboriginal community that participated in the economic maintenance of the wider community by the provision of labour to local agriculture. The people also maintained a culturally distinct Aboriginal lifestyle firmly based on the maintenance of family connections over the wider region. DPI Website

The history of the Mission following Rev. Gribble, is a history of changing policies and the institutionalisation of policies which brought resulted in children being removed from families, segregation, and the generational trauma we have today.

The Exhibition explores both the positive and negative, and for many of us, we will know the family names (Bamblett, Grant, Howell, Atkinson, Kirby, Murray, Charles, Little and Perry) of those who are closely associated with the mission.

The work here is equal to the best in this nation, and could hang alongside other contemporary artists work at the National Gallery and it is a credit to Ray and Raina, that this gallery continues to push the edge and bridge the cultural gap and knowledge gap.

Each year I have been stood in the gallery, mesmersied by the work on exhibit, moved to tears by the beauty, eloquence and challenge of each work and what they say to the viewer. The growth and maturity of the artists alone staggers me.

I want to mention two artists, Father and son, Allan and Cory McKenzie, who continue to explore their creative talent in new ways, their work is emotionally challenging, evocative and immense. It also serves as a pathway for knowledge, new understanding and more importantly healing.

Rodney Simpson and his carvings are immense. Talent has to find a pathway to emerge and sometimes it takes a few challenges and some time to get there, your work, Mr Simpson, is beautiful.

The work here is about the journey of artists interpreting a place that is of significance to them personally, it offers traditional crafts and story telling and also contemporary style and media. I visited the exhibition today at a private viewing, and part of the Exhibit was being relocated to the Gallery space at the regional Theatre, and an additional exhibition on Warangesda Mission was being installed to add to the viewer experience and also in time for NAIDOC official ceremonies on Thursday evening. So I have to return to both spaces and take more time to spend with each work. So this review is not quite complete.

We all have a part in the story of this nation, in its history and also in its history yet to be told. We decide in what part we play, and how that makes a difference to the lives we lead but also in the lives others lead or have opportunities to lead. The stories of Warangesda can uplift you, and at the same time leave you in utter despair, but new knowledge gives us the power to change, and to build.