Carrolup art makes a heartfelt return

Lost, forgotten, found and feted, a collection of 122 works by the once internationally famous indigenous child artists of Carrolup finally makes it to the walls of John Curtin Gallery.

The works were created more than 60 years ago at Carrolup Native School, near Katanning in the Great Southern, by Stolen Generation children forcibly removed from their parents. A few of the young artists, including Revel Cooper, Parnell Dempster and Reynold Hart, continued to create into adulthood.

The works toured the world in the 1950s under the patronage of visiting English philanthropist Florence Rutter, creating a sensation in the press and attracting critical acclaim.

Rutter sold them to American television magnate Herbert Mayer who, in turn, gifted the collection to Colgate University in upstate New York, where the works remained in obscurity for decades.

Their chance discovery in 2004 by visiting Australian academic Howard Morphy set the wheels in motion for their repatriation to Australia.

John Curtin Gallery director Chris Malcolm says Colgate had discussions with the University of WA and Curtin University before deciding to gift the works to Curtin.

"Over the years, Curtin has demonstrated a capacity to thoroughly engage with Noongar communities through its Centre for Aboriginal Studies, one of the earliest of its kind in Australia," Mr Malcolm says. "We also have the highest percentage of Aboriginal students in the country."

Although Curtin legally owns the works, Mr Malcolm sees the university as custodians, providing safekeeping for the collection.

"Hopefully, what we do with them will demonstrate to the Noongar community at large they can trust us to keep the collection safe for them forever," he says. "We want to make sure it's accessible and is used to educate people . . . about the travesties of the past and how they impact on contemporary society."

Ahead of the Koolark Koort Koorliny (Heart Coming Home) exhibition opening on Friday, two buses will wend their way to Perth via different routes through the south of the State to pick up friends and descendants of the artists in towns small and large.

"There will also be a private viewing for family members because it's a very emotional time," Mr Malcolm says.

It also will be an emotional homecoming for Noelene White, the daughter of Carrolup teachers Noel and Lily White, who were credited with encouraging the children to draw their environment in their own style.

Holding back tears, Ms White says her sister and brother were still alive when the collection was discovered in New York in 2004. "We couldn't help but think of our parents, and the work and time they put into this," she says. "They both died not knowing a thing about it. They thought the works had gone forever."

Ms White remembers Rutter visiting Carrolup during a mission to establish a female version of Rotary, Soroptimist International, across Australia and New Zealand.

Rutter was both amazed and appalled by what she saw, noting in her diary the children were badly housed but inexplicably produced beauty in the midst of squalor.

Ms White says every square inch of the walls of the classroom were filled with paintings but conditions were dreadful.

"Those little children were ragged, dirty, uncared for, unkempt, and their hair was full of bugs," she says. "It was appalling. The people who were supposed to look after their welfare, like bathing them, didn't do it. It was my dad and mum who got to work with that. After school hours, they cut the kids' hair and debugged them and deloused them.

"My mum could turn her hand to almost anything. She ordered bolts of material from the Native Affairs Department in Perth, and cut out shorts, shirts, skirts and blouses, and the Aboriginal girls sewed them together. She cut enough so they had a couple of changes of clothes for school, and afterwards they could go to their dormitories and change into clean clothes."

According to Ms White, the food was no better. "Everything was slung in to make this watery concoction. My mother said it wasn't good enough, so she took on the kitchen, making lovely big stews with dumplings on the top, and taught the children how to cook and bake."

Aged 12, when she arrived at Carrolup in 1945, Ms White says many of the children became friends and often spent weekends playing a bush version of hide and seek. "We used to head bush, walk in the water backwards, cover our tracks; but they always found us. All you'd hear was a laugh. It was so easy for them. They were so talented those children. Not only in art but also in singing and sport."

Carrolup was closed suddenly in 1950. "The children were becoming famous and people were asking questions," Ms White says.

"My dad used to get piles of letters from people all over the world asking for paintings or sending money. It was just exploding. Both the Native Affairs Department and the Education Department were at loggerheads. Both wanted the accolades and recognition for themselves. It was all about jealousy."

Ms White says the sudden closure of the school was a huge shock to her parents. "They used to talk about it all the time. It broke their hearts, and they never really got over it."