The art of Aunty Julie Freeman

Shoalhaven: | Aunty Julie Freeman art | Australian First Nations research | Berry' Frankenstein & Arawarra | Cullunghutti - Sacred Mountain | Gooloo Creek, Conjola | Mickey of Ulladulla | Mount Gigenbullen | Byamee's Hands, Shoalhaven River | Ulladulla Mission | Words |

Aunty Julie Freeman, Nir-ing djamaru (Rush cutters), 2024.

On Saturday, 2 November 2024, the Bundanon Art Museum will celebrate the opening of the exhibition bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, a creative collaboration between Gweagal / Wandiwandian storyteller and artist Aunty Julie Freeman, leading Walbunja / Ngarigo artist Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Wiradyuri / Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. It will run through to 9 February 2025 and include Aunty Julie's first solo exhibition.

The present writer, being a non-Indigenous Illawarra historian, had visited Aunty Julie at Wreck Bay during April 2024 to discuss Shoalhaven Indigenous cultural heritage issues, in association with a presentation that month to a group of Elders and community at Nowra. During the visit there was an opportunity to view some of Aunty Julie's magnificent artworks in anticipation of the forthcoming exhibition. The writer was amazed by the few then being worked on - they were graphically stunning in both expression of the essence of a traditional Shoalhaven Dreaming story, and artistic execution through the use of synthetic polymer paint on large canvases. The clarity of Aunt Julie's imagery, use of colour, and a distinct style incorporating traditional Aboriginal dot painting and motifs, revealed through fine brush work, drew in the present writer, who immediately sought more information on the stories being told. Unfortunately time ran out that day, and such revelations and yarning would have to wait for another time....

Events associated with the November 2024 exhibition opening included: Welcome to Country and Official Opening (11.30am), special performances from leading First Nations musician Alice Skye and intergenerational Yuin choir Djinama Yilaga, and a talk by Aunty Julie entitled Biddi-gal noon-kan-leek (Grandmothers belonging to me) (1.30pm). The media release for the exhibition provided the following information on its scope:

Celebrating local stories and upholding local Aboriginal values and kinships, this major collaboration between the renowned First Nations artists will feature large-scale installations, a 75-metre-long mural and new paintings, as well as significant cultural objects. The season will also include drawings by 19th century artist Mickey of Ulladulla. Loaned from key collections across Australia, these works provide a historical anchor to the season.

Bundanon guest curator, Jonathan Jones, is a member of the Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi peoples of south east Australia and is well known for his evocative site-specific installations and interventions into space. Working across a range of mediums, his work explores and interrogates cultural and historical relationships and ideas from Indigenous perspectives and traditions.

For bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, Jones has invited Aunty Julie Freeman and Aunty Cheryl Davison, two significant senior artists and storytellers from the south east whom he has known for many years, to collaborate on this major new project. Both artists’ families are deeply rooted in the NSW South Coast with Aunty Julie Freeman having connections from La Perouse to Wreck Bay and Aunty Cheryl from Wallaga Lake to La Perouse. Collectively, their work upholds and maintains Aboriginal values and? kinships by celebrating local stories and culture.

In Bundanon’s main gallery space, the three artists have created a large-scale architectural gunyah structure built from 84 turpentine trees harvested from the Bundanon site. The tall upright trees, which are familiar to the dense forest environment of the Shoalhaven, will form this immersive indoor installation. Suspended from the gunyah structure in the canopy space will be screen-printed skyscapes created by Aunty Cheryl Davison. These new prints depict the local creation story of the glossy black-cockatoo and Cambewarra Mountain, near Bundanon.

A 75-metre mural by Aunty Julie Freeman and her daughter Markeeta Freeman will wrap around the walls of the gallery, mapping the coastline from Sydney to Gippsland. The work illustrates the significant bays, beaches, rivers and mountains that make up the South Coast physical and cultural landscape.

The mural will be interspersed with drawings by the nineteenth century Yuin artist Mickey of Ulladulla. Mickey’s works are a rare depiction of early colonisation and the shifting cultural landscape through an Aboriginal viewpoint, connecting narratives from the past and present. On loan from the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia and the State Library of NSW, this presentation marks the biggest showing of his works in recent years and the first time that many of the works have come back to Country since they were made.

Bundanon’s Gallery 2 will present Aunty Julie Freeman’s first ever solo exhibition, featuring a major suite of new paintings that document grandmother stories of the plants, animals and weather patterns from the escarpments, mountains and waterways of her Country. Celebrating the strength of women, each painting is presented alongside a cultural object, further contextualising the stories shared by these living ancestors.

In Gallery 4, Aunty Cheryl Davison will present an installation, building on her body of work that celebrates local Aboriginal stories and the unique South Coast environment, she’ll use soft sculptures to tell stories of her family and community.

Connecting the three gallery spaces will be bespoke soundscapes, featuring recordings of local oceans and streams, stories spoken in the local language, and cockatoo birdsong. These new soundscapes sing the stories of place, celebrating local traditions and the ongoing collaboration of these three artists and cultural leaders.

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Artworks

Five of Aunty Julie's artworks from bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country are illustrated below.

#1 - Aunty Julie Freeman, Marn guy-angal (Clever woman from the south), 2024, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 60.7 x 122 cm. Photo: June Andersen. Courtesy the artist.

#2 - Aunty Julie Freeman, Nir-ing djamaru (Rush cutters), 2024, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122 x 60.7cm. Photo: June Andersen. Courtesy the artist.

#3 - Aunty Julie Freeman, Mula-mulans (Djinama barn-na mungala, Rain Makers of the Columbus clouds), 2024, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122 x 60.7cm. Photo: June Andersen. Courtesy the artist.

#4 Aunty Julie Freeman, Murri-yira biritch (Whale talkers), 2024, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122 x 60.7cm. Photo: June Andersen. Courtesy the artist.

#5 - Aunty Julie Freeman, [Hands and fish], 2024, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122 x 60.7cm. Photo: June Andersen. Courtesy the artist.

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Selected Works

The following is a listing of selected works of art, installations, exhibitions and presentations by Aunty Julie Freeman, either solo or in collaboration.

* 1997 - 'Forget Me Nots' [installation], Wollongong Art Gallery and Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.

Description: Aunty Julie Freeman, as a Gorawarl Jerrawongarla woman, is a traditional owner of South Sydney and the South Coast of New South Wales. She comes from Sydney's local Aboriginal community of La Perouse and is a recognised artist, cultural leader and storyteller. Her 1997 installations, Forget Me Nots, a cemetery plot made from the gates of the infamous Bomaderry Girls Home hung with a wreath of pink and blue forget-me-nots with photo behind of c.1930s class and teacher instead of headstone, and Reconciliation (like a Bonsai tree of beans), were shown in 'What is Aboriginal Art’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, 1997, and in a south coast Aboriginal art show (exhibition title unknown) at Wollongong Art Gallery, 1997 (Shoalhaven Regional Art Gallery).

* 1998 - Fish and Coastal Headland, lino print - ink on paper, 33 x 32 cm. Shoalhaven Regional Art Gallery, Nowra.

* 2016 - Stories with Aunty Julie Freeman [presentation], Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 30 September 2016.

* 2019 - Jinaola, [presentation], Indigenous Geographies, University of Wollongong, X / Twitter, 6 September 2019.

* 2019, GADI [exhibition], Australian Museum, 2019.

* 2020 - Emu Sky [exhibition], University of Melbourne. Artwork: Aunty Julie Freeman, Water carriers 2020, Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), wood, string.

* 2021 - Aunty Julie Freeman and Markeeta Freeman [exhibition], Wulwulawala Dharawal Women Sharing Stories [exhibition], Hazelhurst Arts Centre, 4 May - 14 June 2021.

* 2023 - Bangala [installation], Public artwork at Gunyama Park and Aquatic Centre, Sydney, November 2023. Artists: Aunty Julie Freeman and Jonathan Jones. Bangala, City of Sydney, YouTube, 24 November 2023, duration: 0.45 minutes.

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References

Bundanon [website], Bundanon, accessed 18 October 2024.

Bundanon announces 2024 Season 3 exhibition - Bariwariganyan: Echoes of Country [media release], Bundanon, accessed 18 October 2024.

Connecting to Country, Shoalhaven Visitor Guide, Shoalhaven City Council, Nowra, 2022.

Freeman, Julie, Reading Country in Spot Fire 1 [video], Kaldor Public Art Projects, 27 February 2017, YouTube, duration: 37.29 minutes. Aunty Julie tells a number of stories.

Walking on Country [short film] and Aunty Julie Freeman, Shoalhaven Tourism, Instagram, 30 September 2020.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Aunty Julie Freeman for meeting with me and sharing some of her wisdom and stories. Information provided within the above blog relating to the 2024 exhibition was sourced from the Bundanon website and prepared by their staff. All images related to the 2024 Bundanon exhibition were likewise provided through the website. Photographers included Julie Andersen for the artworks and Live Photography for portraits.

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Shoalhaven: | Aunty Julie Freeman art | Australian First Nations research | Berry' Frankenstein & Arawarra | Cullunghutti - Sacred Mountain | Gooloo Creek, Conjola | Mickey of Ulladulla | Mount Gigenbullen | Byamee's Hands, Shoalhaven River | Ulladulla Mission | Words |

Last updated: 8 November 2024

Michael Organ, Australia