The sky is paler in New Zealand but the greens are much deeper and richer than Australia.
Art, spirits, colours and anger ? Aboriginal artists talk about their work to the Petone Herald. When Jake Soewardie was a runaway in the tough Sydney suburb of Redfern back in the 60s he?d sometimes sleep in public toilets. ?I?d close the door and snore me head off until I could see the sun going down through the crack.? He drank booze in back alleys, and dossed down in houses packed with dozens and dozens of fellow Redfern travellers. Nowadays Jake can sit in Jackson Street relaxing with a group of other Aboriginal artists exhibiting in Williams Gallery talking to the Petone Herald about being angry for his people. Joined by fellow visiting Aboriginal artists Shirley Amos and Jeffery Samuels there was a genuine desire to forgive their treatment in their home count. Jake ran away from a state social welfare home as a kid and roamed the streets. When asked why he was put in the home in the first place Shirley answered for him. ?(because) He was an aborigine. ?There was no particular reason why an aborigine ended up in a home. ?Girls were taught to wait on white people and be their servants.? Meanwhile talking about applying his artist?s eye to New Zealand Jeffery said he was stunned by the colours. The sky is paler in New Zealand but the greens are much deeper and richer than Australia. And the act of travelling will help inspire Jeffery when he returns home. ?I know the spirits of this land will speak to me?when you visit some other countries the spirits talk to you.? As for Jake, he said he?d always created pictures. He wasn?t keen to talk about his first actual sale and how he got off the street ? but he did say that it was encouragement and praise that kept him creating. People liked his pictures, he said, and that was a start. The exhibition runs until October 7. Pictured from left, Jake Soewardie, Lorraine Williams, Shirley Amos and Jeffery Samuels.
