Deanne Gilson. Karrap Karrap Beenyak – Flower Baskets of Knowledge.

We went to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday 5th November 2023. It’s on at the Dainesinger Gallery in Weston Street Brunswick (just down from Doherty’s Gym) until 16th December. The paintings are wonderful, as I expected because I’ve been to an exhibition of Deanne’s before which I’ve written about here – it’s interesting to revisit that blog, it shows that Deanne’s themes and practice are longstanding. And she has exhibited at the Ballarat Foto Biennial as well. This is the painting used to advertise the current exhibition, Full Moon Ceremony – Kunuwarra, Ba-gurrk Murrup (Women’s Spirit, Dance of the Black Swan) 2023.

This essay accompanies the exhibition and includes descriptions of each painting. The basket in this one, created by the artist’s sister replicates an ancestral basket held in the Ulster Museum of Ireland. White ochre is sacred and forms a connection to the spirit world. The figures represent Deanne and her sister performing Kunuwurra, the black swan dance. The wise barn owl represents ancestral spirit and knowledge being passed on. The whole painting reflects Deanne’s interest in celebrating women’s skills and traditions, reclaiming native plants for their traditional meanings separate from Joseph Banks’ views and working with members of her family. Deanne gave an artists talk at the opening which was very personal, and very informative about her practice.

This is Post Preston, After the Appropriation – Don’t Gang Gang Up on Me, Ya Galah – Wunggurrwill Ba-gurrk Murrup (Strong Women’s Spirit) 2023. Deanne in her speech made it clear that she loves Margaret Preston paintings but in her own work she is responding to the appropriation by Preston of Aboriginal sacred symbols, designs and art for her own gain, trying to create an Australian style that removed the sacred and personal stories of First Nations peoples. The red waratah in this and other paintings of Deanne’s is an appropriation of Preston’s Waratah’s hand woodcut print of 1925. I love the smaller images in many of the paintings because they all tell a story. The ones here are three generations of Wadawurrung women, standing proud and showing we have survived – Queen Mary of Ballarat circa 1860, Marlene Gilson (Deanne’s mother) and Deanne (in their wedding dresses, taken from old wedding photos), and an unknown Wadawurrung girl taken from an early settler drawing by William Strutt that’s in the British Museum. The dilly bag replaces a western style vase. The galahs are trying to bully the women and the gang gang cockatoo. The pink ochre is women’s business and part of reclamation of our identity and women’s business today.

Both of the above paintings are large and here is another large one, Ba-gurrk Murrup, Women’s Healing and Cleansing Ceremony, 2023. The black background is charcoal from Deanne’s mother’s fire, crushing it is a painful process for the artist. The rainbow lorikeets and king parrots depicted here stem from our Creation Story. They’re in a red gum blossom tree. Once again the basket was woven by the artist’s sister. At the bottom of the painting Deanne, her sister, niece, cousin and friend are depicted performing the gentle women’s healing and cleansing ceremony.

There were four big paintings all up which were all great, and expensive so destined for galleries or people with a lot of money. But the exhibition included a number of smaller ones in a series the artist calls Before Joseph Banks, Our Baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge. I took photos of a few of them which are included below. Each picture has the charcoal background which gives great texture to the work and also appears very different in each. They all feature a vessel – different forms of dilly bags and woven baskets that come from the South Eastern collection of artefacts held within the Melbourne Museum, and gifts from family and friends. Each then depict a specific plant and may include birds, insects or small figures that tell us something about First Nations culture. As the exhibition essay says of all the paintings being shown; They reclaim cultural knowledge, mixing tradition with the lived experience of her ancestors and re-enriching her life with culture. All of Deanne’s paintings contain small touches of 22 karat gold leaf reflecting the fact she lives in Ballarat with its rich goldfields history – it’s fun to try and find it. Very expensive she says! They are all framed in black sustainable Victorian ash in a form similar to a coffin according to Deanne – but I can’t quite see that. All of them were painted in 2023 and I’ve ordered them as presented at the exhibition except the last one. There were lots more. All beautiful.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Hakea – Pin Cushion. Deanne says My childhood memory of the pin cushion tree growing up in Naarm (Melbourne) Capturing childhood memories. I love the pink colour, and the sliver of moon, and the gold is easy to see.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Yellow Paper Daisy with Kunuwarra the Black Swan Sisters (Bunjil’s wives). I didn’t know this story about Bunjil, that he had two wives, known as Kunuwarra the black swan sisters, although I have a painting on this theme (see below). Black swans are found on Lake Wendouree in Ballarat where Deanne lives. The swans in the painting reference two friends of the artist who assist her acquire the ochre she uses in here works.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Lomandra Used to Weave an Eel Trap. Different makers and communities have their own special ways of making baskets which in turn have lots of different uses, like the eel trap in this picture, and which you can see in the photos of Deanne above and below. Works of art in themselves. I love the blue in this picture and the dragon fly and eel. The gold is there but hard to distinguish. Deanne says: This is an imagined snap shot into our culture and daily life as it used to be for our people pre-colonisation.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Red Flowering Gum Blossom. Deanne explains the meaning of this picture; The birds existed as spirits before Bunjil the Eaglehawk, who was originally a man, gave them life and created them using the colours of his brother, Binbeal the Rainbow. They live in the gum trees and form links back to our Creation Story. I love the colours, especially the blue. And there seems more gold in this work, but I might be imagining that.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge,Jirra Wit (Willy Wagtail) in Bottle Brush. An accompanying poem by Deanne’s brother Barry, includes: Oh, wise willy wagtail, it remembers everything it heard. That such a creature should know human wisdom, when it’s only a little bird. [and the bird responds] …. “I am the Jirra-wit, I listen to your stories, your words and all your tales, I hear your successes, I frown at your fails, ….

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Waxlip Orchid.Deanne says this depicts: My Nan’s spirit held in the cabbage butterfly, hovering over one of her and my favourite flowers, the tiny waxlip orchid.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Kangaroo Apple. I love the vivid blue in this painting. And the way the stars stand out in the charcoal background. Deanne tells us; The fruit of the Kangaroo Apple can be eaten when it is ripe. If eaten too early it is poisonous.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Ngarri – She-oak Tree, Protector of Children. This is a flowering female She-oak Tree. I’ve always loved She-oaks as they grew in the mallee where I was born and I love the swooshing sound they make. Very useful trees as Deanne tells us, the wood used for clubs, boomerangs and spears because it doesn’t split and the cones are edible. It was said to have been a protector of children as they played around it. You can hear our ancestors’ voices whispering in the winds of the long flowing branches and long-stemmed leaves. This picture of the female tree represents the woman as a mother and protector. I love the form of the dilly bag too.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Murnong Daisy and Billy Buttons. The tubers of the murnong daisy, harvested by women, were eaten raw, roasted in the fire and then crushed and mixed into a paste for pupups (babies) to eat. The introduction of sheep and cattle killed it. We came across Billy Buttons on a trip to Bright earlier this year, cute little things. I love the blue bees sucking on the flowers and the vessel for conveying the tubers.

Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Red Waratah. This is part of Deanne’s response to the artist most famous for her paintings of this flower, which is not found naturally in Victoria. Interrogating Preston and the interruption to our land, history and cultural practices. Finding my voice to speak our/my truth as an Aboriginal woman, post colonisation.

We arrived pretty much on time, but even then most of these smaller paintings had been sold, I considered myself lucky to be able to buy this one. Before Joseph Banks, Our baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, Running Postman (Guli – man) and Our wadawurrung Queen Mary’s Golden Wattle Crown. Deanne’s brother Barry is a postie, the plant depicted is the running postman creeper. Below the basket you can see the golden crown of our ancestor Queen Mary (I need to find out more about her). This is a take on the Queen Elizabeth symbol seen on red post boxes around Australia. A good picture for a committed republican (though we’re not going to get that any time soon – nor constitutional recognition of First Nations – backward country that we are!)

This will join a painting by Deanne that we already own, Koonswarra Ngarrimili (Dance of the Black Swan), 2020. About which I now know more. This one has the beautiful blues that I love in her work.

I do recommend a visit to this exhibition; the works are beautiful and revealing about a culture too few of us know anything about. And to finish here’s a picture of yours truly and Deanne – so warm and welcoming, and articulate about her work. Lovely to meet the creator of this wonderful work.