The connection that has been built over the years between Colgate and the Noongar people of Australia was reinforced recently with a painting gifted to the university.
Moonlight was presented last month on behalf of the Mungart Boodja Art Centre by two Colgate students who traveled to Western Australia this past summer to study the art of the indigenous people called Noongars.
The relationship between the Noongar people and the university began in 2004 when numerous drawings by Noongar children were identified within the collection of the Picker Art Gallery.
The artists were members of a generation of aboriginal children who had been removed from their families and sent to live in a government settlement to assimilate to white Australian society. The settlement was originally known as Carrolup, making the artists known as the Carrolup children.
Since the discovery of the works at the Picker, several members of the Noongar people have traveled to Colgate to see the artwork of their ancestors.
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| A painting by artist Alan Kelly was presented as a gift to Colgate. Looking on are Meg Hanley '11 and Elisabeth Tone '11; Interim President Lyle Roelofs; geography professor Ellen Percy Kraly; and Picker Art Gallery director Scott Habes. (Photo by Andy Daddio) ) |
The most recent addition to the collection, Moonlight depicts a stark moonscape that is representative of the beauty of Western Australia. It was painted in 2008 by Alan Kelly, who at 96 years of age, is the oldest surviving child artist from Carrolup.
In both 2008 and 2009 Colgate students have traveled with geography professor Ellen Percy Kraly to learn about culture, art, and landscape directly from Noongar people.
"We have so much to learn from each other," Kraly said. "It is an ongoing journey characterized by good will, mutual respect, and a shared appreciation of the important lessons of the Carrolup story for all of us and for future generations."
Meg Hanley '11 and Elisabeth Tone '11 presented the painting to Interim President Lyle Roelofs, Interim Provost and Dean of the Faculty Jill Harsin, and Picker Art Gallery director Scott Habes. Roelofs asked that the painting be placed in a prominent location as part of the Picker Art Gallery's visible art on campus program.
Colgate has been working closely with Mungart Boodja Art Centre in Katanning, Western Australia, to build a relationship with the Noongar community living closest to the location of the Carrolup settlement.
Noongar leaders of the art center also sent words of appreciation to Colgate for its commitment to Noongar culture and educating its students about the legacy of Carrolup.
In a letter to Roelofs, Ezzard Flowers, chairperson of Moongart Boodja, wrote: "May the good of the spiritual legacy of the Carrolup School of Art continue to lead us and to embrace our friendship and continued good will as we go forward."