At the beginning

I haven't been to see the new digitally constructed banner of the Northcote Koorie Mural yet. It went up while I was away and I was sent text images of it in Sth Africa which was suitably far enough away for me. It was a difficult time doing the work to recreate it. I felt as though I was literally remapping old brain patterns as I drew in Illustrator the old lines that we all drew 30 year ago before such a thing as a personal computer existed. Many wonderful but sad memories emerged out of the mass of my life's experience. Going back to rework something I did 30 years ago was difficult enough. Nobody wants to look that hard at their old work and I had been defined by that mural from day one. I was never interested in murals and in fact even though I did three large ones in a row I don't really like them. They dominate the landscape in the way that advertising billboards do. The original motivation to do the first two murals was always political. Two issues were important to me in my early 20's and they have remained so - Australia's unresolved past and the blatant theft of the country from its original inhabitants and the rights and freedom of half of the population, women. Thirty years on some things have changed but lots hasn't. I was told that not long before the original Koorie mural was dismantled it was graffitied with the words ABO. This is why I am embarking on a personal search for my families history. I believe that underlying the brash sporting identity of Australian culture is a deep and hidden shame. Stage one of the KELOID project explores that shame.