Curtin seeks $15m to create Carrolup Centre

Curtin University has launched a campaign to create a permanent home for a collection of rare artworks created by Aboriginal children of Australia’s Stolen Generations.

The university is proposing the space be called the Carrolup Centre for Truth Telling, and is seeking donations to fund its establishment, which is expected to cost around $15 million.

The artworks were created by Aboriginal children who were forcibly separated from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s near Katanning.

The collection, which involves hand-drawn landscapes, was purchased by New York art collector Herbert Mayer who donated the works to the Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University in New York in 1966.

The artworks were in storage until they were discovered by visiting Australian professor Howard Morphy in 2004.  

Colgate University decided to repatriate the works back to Nyungar country, and after consulting with Nyungar elders, gave the works to Curtin through its John Curtin Gallery.

The works were returned in 2013, and have been exhibited from time-to-time in the John Curtin Gallery since. 

Carrolup Elders Reference Group chair Tony Hansen said the centre would shed light on the true stories of the Stolen Generations, by allowing the voices of the Carrolup children to be heard.

“The Carrolup Centre will commemorate how young Aboriginal children – forcibly separated from their families, isolated, segregated, traumatised and living in an unknown place – still found beauty and connection to country through their art,” Mr Hansen said.

“It will be an enduring reminder that while racism seeks to destroy all that is good about a people, it never can.

“Like water, cultural beauty and goodness always finds a way; at Carrolup, that way was through children

Curtin University interim vice-chancellor John Cordery said he was proud to launch the project that aimed to give these historic and beautiful works a permanent home.

“These extraordinary artworks offer an insight into a sad period in our country’s history and the enduring qualities of Western Australia’s Nyungar community,” Professor Cordery said.

“They deserve their own space to ensure that more people are able to access and learn from them.

“We hope that, with financial support from corporations and the community, the Carrolup Centre will also become an important focal point for reconciliation.”

John Curtin Gallery director Chris Malcolm said Curtin was now calling on all members of the community, individuals and organisations, to help turn the vision for the Carrolup Centre into a reality.

“Our gallery is privileged to be the custodian of this extraordinary collection and believe it should be shared and recognised by people everywhere,” Mr Malcolm said

“We are asking both business leaders and community members to own this space with the Nyungar community, by making a financial contribution to ensure we can build a lasting and easily accessible home for these works of such profound cultural significance.

“All donors who make a gift or fulfil a pledge over three years will be acknowledged as founding donors of this historic project which will allow the important lessons of these artworks to be passed on to local, national and international communities.”