AUGUST 1, 2005 Drawings from Carrolup: Aboriginal Children's Art of the "Stolen Generations" The Picker Art Gallery is pleased to announce the rediscovery within its permanent collection of a significant group of Australian Aboriginal drawings. The 91 sheets, some worked on both sides, contain 113 drawings made by Aboriginal children residing in the Carrolup River Native Settlement near Katanning in the south-west of Western Australia between 1945 and 1953. Ranging in size from about 7 by 5 to about 29 by 43 inches, the vividly colored drawings-executed in pastel, graphite, watercolor and black ink-offer an unusually coherent representation of this important moment in the history of modern Australian art. The artists of the Picker's drawings belonged to Australia's "stolen generations"-the thousands of children of Aboriginal or mixed Aboriginal and European descent who were forcibly removed from their families as part of an Australian government policy of "assimilation" into white society that extended from the late nineteenth century into the 1970s. (For the Australian government's 1995 "Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families", visit http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/hreoc/stolen/). The children housed at the Carrolup Settlement (established in 1915, closed in 1922, reopened in 1938, closed in 1951, and changed to the Marribank Baptist Aborigines Mission in 1952) belonged primarily to the Noongar (also spelled Nyungar or Nyoongar) people. They began to make drawings in 1945, when the school's new headmaster, Noel White, introduced evening sketching sessions as a way of alleviating the appalling conditions in which the children were detained. With White's encouragement, the children began to make drawings-landscapes and botanical studies inspired by nature walks; designs for fabrics and ceramics; narrative scenes drawn from Australian poetry; and poster-like images illustrating the habits and life cycles of animals. The resulting images reveal a coherent, attractive style that combines Aboriginal- and European-inspired elements in a wholly new manner. Not surprisingly, the precocious artists-all aged between 10 and 14-drew wide attention, initially in Australia, and later, with the advocacy of a devoted British patron, Florence Rutter, in Europe as well. Labels preserved on the backs of the original frames of certain Picker drawings indicate that they were exhibited in London in the early 1950s. Their large size and accomplished handling further supports a date towards the end of the Carrolup period, at the height of the children's creative powers. Not long after the drawings' exhibition in London, the works were acquired by Colgate alumnus, Herbert A. Mayer, Class of 1929, whose generous gifts to the Picker Art Gallery would eventually number well over a thousand works. Mayer began collecting art after he made his fortune in television; in 1957, he opened World House Galleries in Manhattan (1957-1986), which showcased contemporary art from across the globe. The Carrolup sheets, which must have appeared striking and unfamiliar to a New York City audience, are characteristic of his taste. At the time Mayer donated the drawings to the Picker Art Gallery in the late 1960s, the Carrolup story seems to have faded in the public consciousness, and the works were catalogued simply as "Aboriginal". The Carrolup school had closed in 1951, and the children had been sent into the workforce. Although some of them, such as Revel Cooper and Reynold Hart, continued to make art throughout their lives, the obstacles of poverty and discrimination prevented any from becoming full-time professional artists. The powerful legacy of the Carrolup drawings, which continue to inspire contemporary Australian artists, appears all the more striking given the brevity of the movement and the scarcity of surviving examples. Dr. Howard Morphy, Director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the Australian National University, correctly identified the Picker's Carrolup drawings during a visit to Colgate University in the spring of 2004. His rediscovery set off a chain of events (described in a related news story) that continues to unfold. The Picker Art Gallery looks forward to presenting this extraordinary collection to the public in full in a major forthcoming exhibition.

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