Namatjira’s front door
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“Through his art he had interpreted the beauty of his country to a vast multitude of people” Barbara Henson
To the south west of Alice Springs we stand in a place where a remarkable individual lived and worked. And we enter through Albert Namatjira’s front door. We have not been to this place before.
The restored ‘cottage’ is small in scale and a modest size for a great man who fought prejudice and ignorance to carve out an artist’s life.
Albert built the cottage in 1944 following a successful exhibition in Melbourne in which 38 paintings were sold.
He chose ‘Goat Camp’ on the beautiful Finke River as the location for his home in which his wife Rubina and the seven children could live. Albert did much of the building work himself, burning lime and carting stone and timber. Aboriginal friends assisted him in the various tasks of preparing materials and construction.
The walls of the building are constructed of local sandstone and the floor from flat rocks, again sourced locally. The door, windows and roofing iron were purchased by Albert and imported to the site. The cottage is very much in Hermannsburg mission style, reflecting his early childhood experience of European architecture at the mission where he was born.
Following custom, the family abandoned the cottage in the late 1950s following the death of one of the children. The cottage was restored in 1971 and again in 1986.
Albert Namatjira’s life story is a famous one and I do not need to repeat it here but to say just a few things. Albert was born on the 28th of July 1902 and became a custodian of the Western Arrernte Lands of which he was so much a part. Initiated at the age of twelve he took the name Namatjira (flying ant) inheriting his father’s dreaming.
He was to become the most famous Indigenous person of his generation, his watercolours of Western influence are almost part of the landscape here, the two are one, and his paintings tell the story of a very precious place in Central Australia.
Albert’s watercolours were to become the inspiration for the Hermannsburg School of painting. Art became politics and in 1957 (I was at school in Austria and Andrea was at school in Iran at that time) Albert was the first Aboriginal from the Northern Territory to be released from the heavy restrictions of being, as all Indigenous people were, a ward of the State.
Albert was given restricted Australian Citizenship, he was the first Aboriginal given this right and this allowed him to vote and to purchase alcohol. In 1956 he became the first Aboriginal person to win the Archibald (painting) prize for his portrait of William Dargie.
Albert Namatjira died in August 1959 shortly after being released from prison in Alice Springs following a conviction for supplying alcohol to another Aboriginal person.
Standing where Albert once stood is an honour and we thank the family and our Aboriginal friends.
The restored ‘cottage’ is small in scale and a modest size for a great man who fought prejudice and ignorance to carve out an artist’s life.
Albert built the cottage in 1944 following a successful exhibition in Melbourne in which 38 paintings were sold.
He chose ‘Goat Camp’ on the beautiful Finke River as the location for his home in which his wife Rubina and the seven children could live. Albert did much of the building work himself, burning lime and carting stone and timber. Aboriginal friends assisted him in the various tasks of preparing materials and construction.
The walls of the building are constructed of local sandstone and the floor from flat rocks, again sourced locally. The door, windows and roofing iron were purchased by Albert and imported to the site. The cottage is very much in Hermannsburg mission style, reflecting his early childhood experience of European architecture at the mission where he was born.
Following custom, the family abandoned the cottage in the late 1950s following the death of one of the children. The cottage was restored in 1971 and again in 1986.
Albert Namatjira’s life story is a famous one and I do not need to repeat it here but to say just a few things. Albert was born on the 28th of July 1902 and became a custodian of the Western Arrernte Lands of which he was so much a part. Initiated at the age of twelve he took the name Namatjira (flying ant) inheriting his father’s dreaming.
He was to become the most famous Indigenous person of his generation, his watercolours of Western influence are almost part of the landscape here, the two are one, and his paintings tell the story of a very precious place in Central Australia.
Albert’s watercolours were to become the inspiration for the Hermannsburg School of painting. Art became politics and in 1957 (I was at school in Austria and Andrea was at school in Iran at that time) Albert was the first Aboriginal from the Northern Territory to be released from the heavy restrictions of being, as all Indigenous people were, a ward of the State.
Albert was given restricted Australian Citizenship, he was the first Aboriginal given this right and this allowed him to vote and to purchase alcohol. In 1956 he became the first Aboriginal person to win the Archibald (painting) prize for his portrait of William Dargie.
Albert Namatjira died in August 1959 shortly after being released from prison in Alice Springs following a conviction for supplying alcohol to another Aboriginal person.
Standing where Albert once stood is an honour and we thank the family and our Aboriginal friends.
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