POPE Benedict XVI’s first visit to Australia will include a private viewing of Richard Campbell’s artwork.
Richard, an Aboriginal artist from the Gumbaingirr/Dunghutti people, has been handpicked to have his work on display in Sydney for World Youth Day in July next year.
Some of his work will also be used in merchandising for the event.
Richard, who calls Kempsey home, brings together traditional Aboriginal culture and the Catholic faith in his artwork.
World Youth Day is the Catholic Church’s week of events for youth.
Thousands of young people from around the world gather to celebrate and learn about the Catholic faith and to build bridges of friendship and hope between continents,
peoples and cultures.
Richard’s Fourteen Stations of the Cross, The Madonna, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection will be used on merchandise for the expected 225,000 registered
pilgrims for WYD08.
“My work depicts stories of my journey, my sisters’ journey, my family’s journey and it can reflect anyone’s journey through life,” the father of three said.
“My story turned around from a sad thing to a good thing. I am working on a few other artworks at the moment including what happened in the boy’s home.”
Taken away from his family at a young age, Richard suffered a tough upbringing constantly moving from one boys’ home to another, including Kinchela Boys’ Home.
Despite enduring a childhood of mental and physical abuse, Richard rose above the negativity and has become a major inspiration not only to his people, but to mankind.
“I have turned a complete circle. I teach at TAFE one day a week and one day at Bellbrook. Both classes are filled with lovely people,” Richard said.
“I want young kids to hear about my life and be inspired to do what I did.”
Richard can recall the exact time he was taken away from his family, on the morning of October 10, 1966.
It was the day after his 10th birthday at 8.30am.
He said his parents tried to keep one step ahead of the Aboriginal Protection Board, so the family moved around a lot.
However, when the family returned to Richard’s birthplace, Bowraville, the board caught up with them.
Richard and his older brother Robert (Bart) went to Kinchela Boys Home while he was separated from his younger sisters. It was about a decade later that he found out where his sisters went.
“The system thought they were doing the right thing for us,” Richard said.
“But my brother turned into an alcoholic and died in the late ’80s.
“The government thought they could assimilate us into white
society but it never really worked.
“I never had a child’s life or a teenager’s life I was always working my finger to the bone.
“Where was the law back then? They turned their backs on us; the country was still under the crown back then.”
With not even a pair of shoes on his feet, Richard went from boys’ homes to foster homes around NSW. At one stage his sisters lived around the block from him, but
neither realised.
Years later Richard got his hands on his DOCS file. It said the reason why his family was split up was because they were ‘neglected.’
Even when Richard turned 15 and he got his first job as a dry cleaner at Fletcher Jones in Sydney, the government kept a close eye on him and put some money from his wage into a trust fund.
During his early years, the self-taught artist found strength from his artwork.
“My father knew I could sketch,” Richard said.
“We use to live the old way. My father taught me how to make boomerangs, spears, and he used
to burn the images I’d sketch into them.
“After we were taken away, between the abuse, I used to sketch.
“It was like a home away from home. They use to come and grab my sketches and burn them, but I would find another piece of paper and start sketching again.
“I won first prize in an art competition at Kempsey West Public School back in ’67 or ’68.
“I won an electric toothbrush, I had never seen anything like it, but they took it away from me.”
Richard said he never stopped thinking about his family and was always trying to find them.
“Aboriginal people meet at the Empress in Redfern, and that is how I found out about my sisters,” Richard said.
“It took my father 20 years to find all of us and he died two days before we were all together again.
“My sisters still suffer but together we can heal the pain.”
It is only in the past 20 years that Richard’s artwork has evolved.
He studied a Certificate III and IV in Aboriginal Art and Culture at the Dijay Centre at Kempsey TAFE and he said his teachers, John Thiery and Chris Austin, were a massive help, teaching him how to use colour.
He then did a Certificate I and II in Newcastle before starting University at Deakin in Newcastle.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2005.
It was his sister Louise, through her work with the Catholic Diocese, who inspired him to do some Aboriginal artwork that depicts Catholic stories, firstly the
crucifixion.
It took Richard almost seven months to finish the Stations of the Cross, which he completed as part of his university studies.
Richard is one of the recent finalists in the prestigious Blake Prize and in 2001 he won the Robert Campbell jnr Indigenous artwork section.
World Youth Day 2008 will be celebrated in Sydney from
July 15-20.
“Pilgrims will descend on the area for World Youth Day and the Lismore Diocese will host some of them,” Richard said.
“I want some of them to stay in the Kempsey area as it is a significant place and I hope the people of the area open their arms to visitors.”
From early December, Richard’s art will be available to buy on the WYD08’s website www.wyd2008.org