Image courtesy of Lorraine Brigdale.
LORRAINE BRIGDALE
I’m a proud Yorta Yorta woman, daughter, mother and artist. My Aboriginal family on the maternal side originates from the Ulupna Clan in the Barmah Forest on the border of NSW and Victoria.
My creative journey & my understanding of my Aboriginal family is undeniably linked. Learning and developing my ochre explorations alongside an ever-growing knowledge around my Aboriginal family brings me joy, sadness and a real feeling of belonging at last.
My grandmother was born and grown up on Country at Cumeragunga Aboriginal Mission in Victoria. When she wanted to marry my white grandfather who was already father to two of her children, she had to apply to the government for permission to marry, and also apply for a Certificate of Exemption to be allowed to live with her husband. She had no choice, her husband was her and her children’s future (staying alone on the mission would put have put her children in danger of being taken by the authorities). The Certificate of Exemption prohibited her from having contact with any Aboriginal people, especially her family. She left her country with her husband and never saw her family again. She lived most of her adult life having no contact or support from her Yorta Yorta family — she never went back to her country. This meant that my mother knew nothing of her ancestry and in turn neither did I. In recent years we've come to learn many parts of my Nan’s story. There is so much we will never know — it’s a difficult, sad journey, not one that we come equipped for. But with knowledge comes power and in the case of my Indigenous ancestors this is true. As the black hole fills and I dig my hands deeper into the ochre, I gain strength and sense of belonging I never imagined. My family story is a part of a contemporary Australian conversation about family, place & connection which is never far from my heart. Working with Ochre restores me to this history and to my heart.
As an artist, my creative life has always included learning, teaching, sharing my art practices, culture and love of country. Making art from natural and found materials is a creative urge which is in my blood, comes from my ancestral memory. It’s my country’s way of calling me home.
The widespread cultural use of ochre and charcoal in paintings and rock art to record events and stories by Australian Aboriginals over many many thousands of years has been well documented. Ochre was used since the beginning of aboriginal life on this country for storytelling, logging of memories, decoration of tools and weapons and also for body markings in spiritual ceremonies, auspicious occasions and hunting.
My artistic response to the landscape, in the form of painting with ochres led me to create natural paintings that tell the story of my art and personal journeys. Since, I’ve further developed my ochre painting, taking my Indigenous heritage and moving with it into my contemporary life and art works. I fossick (forage) for rocks in and around Victoria, plus I've been gifted pieces by my Uncle’s ochre collection, from my sisters who learn from me what to source and from other generous Aboriginal Artists as gifts from their country.
There is something mystical about preparing ochre, handling it and ultimately painting with it. A sense of peace and timelessness descends, but it’s more than this, it’s about deep listening. Connecting with the earth brings me in touch with beings and organic life from the evolution of time, it connects me to my ancestors and to all people. Iron rich ochre containing oxygen connects me to the people and country we come from — there is ochre at the heart. I’m using the materials from my land, in my own way, telling my story. Ochre links me intimately with my origins. The ground we walk on, innate in its beauty is often overlooked as people search for what is beyond and beckoning. I look down at what is often missed underfoot, to the rhythm of nature herself, capturing my country’s story in minute detail. Nature shares its resources with me, then I create.
My art works are created with hand-ground ochres and minerals and using Australian Acacia Gum resin as binder. I work with natural hand-sourced and prepared materials. Having my hands in dirt and pigment that is hundreds of thousands of years in the making connects me directly to Ancestors. Creating art with these natural materials also allows for a more sustainable practice. Ancestors have shown me to use ochre and charcoal together with gum resin in this way.
I’m led by a creative urge to create more contemporary forms, images & ideas, using traditional materials. The earth interests me, the colours, the textures, the energy. I look steadily, intently with great curiosity, interest & pleasure. I’ve been an artist all my life, from my early days making pictures in the dirt and the sand, through the ups and downs of being a potter and paint artist. I love to have my hands in clay, been playing in mud all my life. Using stones and earth, intrigues and inspires me. I know its in my dna, working with ochre & minerals. I learn to understand what it says to me and how it behaves in a contemporary exploration of an age-old medium.
My working life has taken me to many countries and this time of travel gifted me opportunities to embed with other cultures, explore, listen, learn and create. Working as a designer most of my professional life, I spent 5 years in India and Asia, which provided new insights into people, culture and history and the influence of geography on humankind. In the process, my understanding of self and self in relation to place grew, as did my thirst for knowledge of my own Indigenous ancestors, their lives, skills and traditions.
On returning to Australia I was influenced by these new insights and became driven to immerse my creative self, returning once again to exploring ochres, developing my knowledge of this precious traditional resource, making pigments from these stones, and making paint. I was led by my cultural and ancestral memory, while simultaneously exploring how ochres combined with other minerals work as a contemporary art medium. Following my artistic response to local landscape, environment and history in the form of painting with ochres and minerals gave birth to my further paint making studies. I wanted to paint things with my natural ochres that were truly linked with the natural state of the minerals. Simply put, I wanted to paint and make paint. I had started a new love affair. Since, I’ve experimented with making paint from ochres and minerals, and inks from plant matter. While I developed these paints and inks first and foremost for making my own artwork, I am now working toward releasing my natural paint range, Iyoga Woka (Iyoga is pronounced E-or-ga). This means Stone Country. Iyoga is the Yorta Yorta word for ‘stone.’ Woka is the Yorta Yorta word for ‘Earth/Ground/Country/District.’
While my wanderings drive my creative heart, I’m also led by a creative urge to explore contemporary forms using natural materials. The earth interests me personally, the colours, textures, movement, stories, mysteries. I notice the natural world around me, looking steadily, intently with great curiosity, love, interest & pleasure, experiencing wonder.
I am a proud Yorta Yorta woman and have always been experimental with my art and it reflects me as an Indigenous woman. The fact I’m learning about my inherited culture at this stage in my life is a result of the effect on my family of the period called “stolen generations” and the time of colonial rule over my people and my land. My personal Indigenous inheritance shows me the way to create from the land and understand my own and my ancestors stories. Trauma goes back 5 generations, but going forward with the help of the earth I’m working to help my descendants understand and accept better how to be strong Yorta Yorta people in our way.
Image courtesy of Lorraine Brigdale.
Image courtesy of Lorraine Brigdale.