The Colony’s First Australian
It is a curious to know that the most popular subject in early Australian portraiture was not a colonial governor or early explorer but in fact a little known aboriginal man named ‘Bungaree’. Known as ‘King of the Blacks’ and ‘Chief of the Broken Bay Aborigines’, Bungaree was a controversial figure in his day. His way of dealing with European colonisation, was not to follow diplomatic means like Bennelong, nor pursue warfare, as did tribal leader Pemulwuy, but to follow a middle way, acting as a mediator between colonialists and aboriginal people. He was a leader in his community (in what is now northern Sydney), yet was on close terms with English settlers, becoming the first indigenous person to circumnavigate Australia with Matthew Flinders, in which he acted as a guide, interpreter, and negotiator with local tribes.
A flamboyant character, Bungaree was known to greet new arrivals to the colony garbed in an array of military and navel uniforms. Much has been written on Bungaree’s colourful life and his unique ability to straddle two worlds, but for the first time his legend has now been explored from an indigenous perspective, within the field of contemporary art.
A multi-media display of work by 15 contemporary aboriginal artists investigating Bungaree’s life, is now touring the country, the brainchild of legendary indigenous art curator Djon Mundine. Mundine invited a selection of artists to participate in a series of workshops to deconstruct the myth of Bungaree and in the process explore the ongoing dilemma experienced by aboriginal people today of how to live between two cultures.
The fifteen artists, which include Fiona Foley, Rea and Danie Mellor, have unearthed Bungaree’s life and history through a variety of artworks, incorporating painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, digital media and photography. Their responses range from embracing him as a resilient survivor to challenging him as a compromising figure, little more than a ‘token black’ in white society.
In ‘The Many Faces of Bungaree’, Warwick Keen’s digital print shows him as the first aboriginal celebrity, with a series of multiple and multi-coloured Andy Warhol-esque portraits. Photographer Mervyn Bishop depicts him as the ultimate chameleon. In a series of stagey guises, an actor playing Bungaree is dressed as an indigenous leader, a voyager, a farmer and a clownish showman. Danie Mellor has created an exquisite Flemish style still life of abundant fruit and vegetation styled in a delicate delft blue palette. He has then overlaid this painting with small indigenous figures of Bungaree and his community, hovering like strange aliens trying to make sense of this new cultivated world of European culture, society and agriculture.
Adam Hill’s bold abstract sculpture combines fabricated wood with native eucalypt and glossy enamel paint, to depict the two sides of Bungaree – “maintaining tribal obligations whilst wearing a bequeathed empirical coat.” Karla Dickens embraces the Bungaree legend with affection, in her darkly enigmatic and florid sepia portraits.
The artist remarks that:
“I have been enriched by my reflections of Bungaree, The Man, The Mimic, The Beggar, The Drunk, The Brave and Witty Middle Man, with too many wives, and buckets of flare, a truly worthy King.”
This is an engaging and powerful exhibition that in exploring the history of one man’s extraordinary life, reflects on political, social and cultural dilemmas that continue for aboriginal people to this day.
