Because the waters of the terrible Lismore floods slowly retreated in early March 2022, famend Dhungutti painter Blak Douglas used to be struck through the photographs of mob suffering to restart their lives.
Feeling forced to aid by any means he may just, the artist loaded his ute filled with donated provides and drove north to the Koori Mail’s donation assortment level.
The shatter he encountered left a mark.
“It was gobsmacking to see water level marks on buildings 14 metres high. It’s something astonishing,” he told Living Black host Karla Grant.
In the weeks that followed, Blak Douglas contacted his friend, Wiradjuri artist and Lismore local Karla Dickens, and painted the now famous portrait of her standing with a steely gaze of quiet fury amidst the apocalyptic floodwaters of her hometown.
Wiradjuri woman Karla Dickens standing in the devastating flood waters in Lismore. Source: Supplied / Supplied: AGNSW, copyright Blak Douglas
To his shock, Douglas would win the prestigious Archibald Prize competition for his piece, titled ‘Moby Dickens’.
“I’m still pinching myself today,” he said of the win, which comes with $100,000 dollars.
“I honestly never thought that a politicised portrait, with such weight, would win that prize.”
Finding the artist within
Rising up in ‘mono-cultural’ Western Sydney used to be a jarring revel in for the younger Dunghutti boy. Source: Supplied / Blak Douglas
Before achieving that national acclaim as an artist, ‘Blak Douglas’ didn’t carry that moniker; he went by his birth name name Adam Hill.
Raised by a Dhungutti father and his Irish-descent mother, he grew up in the suburbs of Western Sydney, near Blacktown.
This was the 1980s, a time when Dame Edna ruled the television set, Paul Hogan offered to ‘put a shrimp on the barbie’ for you, and Australia revelled in nationalist spirit as it celebrated its bicentennial.
But it was during this time that, perhaps unsurprisingly, Hill simply felt like he didn’t belong.
“Growing up in a mono-cultured community in Western Sydney was a pretty odd experience.
“We had a truly various neighbourhood, however there weren’t many Lightless faces round from our crowd.
“It was very hard thing to stand proud on behalf of your ancestry while being continually shot down for doing so.”
Blak Douglas’ Dunghutti heritage thru his father used to be hardly ever mentioned. Source: Supplied / Blak Douglas
Surrounded by his mother’s Irish family, he felt his father’s heritage was something to be kept secret.
“You didn’t bring up Aboriginal culture. It was coming out of that sensitive era where you just don’t go there.”
This disconnect from heritage had been passed down through many generations; Adam’s own father lost his mother when he was only nine years old.
He was then sent away to live with the white side of his family, saved from being institutionalised, but severed from his culture.
“[Dad] never spoke of our people. It was that era where you didn’t speak out if you didn’t have to, or it was uncomfortable to speak out.”
Finding culture
After finishing high school, Hill enrolled in graphic design and illustration at the University of Western Sydney.
He says it was the first time he felt accepted.
“Finding the solace and the egalitarian thinking of university in my own town was just like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
“I didn’t realise that you might want to have such open-minded considering crowd, versus frequently being chastised on your racial background.”
A tender Blak Douglas together with his father. Supply: Provided / Blak Douglas
It used to be at college that he met Aunty Jean South, who labored within the Aboriginal unit. She would progress onto lecturer him and inspired him to discover his Aboriginal ancestry.
“Aunty Jean South stated to me, ‘So your mum’s white, and your dad’s Lightless and also you’ve been raised on this mono-cultured neighbourhood with this ideology.
“‘You are at a fork in a road, you can choose which way you want to go down.’ It was that moment that I felt the fire ignite in my belly.”
He began to trace his family’s roots back to Kempsey, his grandmother’s town.
Through a cousin, he managed to meet the extended members of his family, who welcomed him home with a big party. It would lead to more discoveries about his own identity.
Becoming ‘Blak’
Blak Douglas taking part in the didgeridoo to start with artwork exhibition titled ‘Rising up on Dharug Nation’ Source: Supplied / Blak Douglas
As he began to learn more about his Dhungutti culture, the young artist felt consistently stuck between two worlds.
Though art began to reflect more of his culture, he found himself once again struggling with his identity.
“I used to be going thru a batch of reports of identification crises. I used to be discovering that because the extra I began to get a reputation and get a platform, now not simplest used to be I keeping off assaults from white crowd pronouncing, ‘You’re now not Lightless enough quantity’, I used to be additionally listening to [the same] from Blackfellas.
“And I thought, ‘Well, f**k ’em. I’m gonna play with this.'”
In growing his unutilized title, he made up our minds on ‘Blak,’ to arise for his crowd, and ‘Douglas’, a dominant Highland title, for his Irish heritage.
‘Blak Douglas’ used to be born, and he’s remained ever since.
Taking at the Commonwealth
As Douglas’ frame of labor grew through the years, so too has his hobby to inform the forgotten tales of his people and his crowd.
So it used to be that thru a prospect come upon with a long-lost cousin the artist would to find his original hobby venture in Kempsey.
“We had a barbecue thrown for us at this little community hall and the mob unrolled this family tree.
“It was about six foot long, and they had all the Dhungutti mobs, and there was this completely vacant family patch, and that was us.
“That’s a tremendously proud moment for any mob who are looking for where they came from.”
Struck through the significance of the while, Douglas made the verdict to movie a self-funded documentary that adopted his progress to discover his people’s historical past.
Join to the tale used to be the 2017 3rd Nationwide Indigenous Triennial on the Nationwide Gallery of Australia, the place Douglas used to be an showing artist.
“And what better way to make an impact in that exhibition, than to produce for the first time, the portrait of my grandmother that we never knew about.
“That’s what this documentary is about.”
The venture titled ‘Blak Douglas vs the Commonwealth’, made its society debut in March this future and used to be met with sure evaluations. For Douglas, he hopes that through demonstrating thru his artwork right through the movie that it encourages formative years to seem additional into their people historical past and build a excess.
“We can’t keep denying those kids that opportunity to [find themselves]; at least for your own knowledge, you’ve gotta find out where your people are.”
Guard Residing Lightless weekly on Mondays at 8.30pm on NITV, and on SBS, Tuesdays at 10.30pm.
Residing Lightless can also be to be had to current for independent on SBS On Call for and might be subtitled in Arabic, Simplified Chinese language, Conventional Chinese language, Korean and Vietnamese.
