Yindjibarndi woman, Sherrie Jones, was raised in the coastal town of Carnarvon, near the Shark Bay world heritage area, before moving briefly to the barren mining town of Coober Pedy, and returning to Port Lincoln in her teens.
The daughter of renowned landscape artist Winston Hubert, Sherrie, now based in Ceduna, along with nine other Indigenous artists, has been mentored for the last nine months by master glass blower Yhonnie Scarce, a Kokatha and Nukunu woman and Marri Ngarr visual artist, writer and academic Ryan Presley.
The product of that mentorship is No Black Seas, a joint project between ACE Open, Arts Ceduna and Ku Arts which is a ‘cultural and artistic critique of the proposed drilling in the Great Australian Bight’. Sherrie has penned an open letter explaining the inspiration for her work for this exhibition.
“My name is Sherrie Jones. I am an Aboriginal artist and I have been painting for over 21 years. I need to get my voice out and say, 'no drilling in the Bight because we need to keep our ocean clean, save Mother Earth and her creatures, most importantly our whales and wildlife, so many different species'. Not only is this our way of life, the Bight is our livelihood: tourism, fishing, a place for the birthing of whales.
The whales come a very long way from the South Pole and we need to keep our environment clean and pristine. We have more than 200 whales with their young visiting our coast.
Mother Earth is crying out, 'stop killing me, respect me, respect me'. Australians and people of the world, stand up for Mother Earth because she is innocent. We are the culture keepers here today.”
Say No To Drilling At The Bight 2019 Christine Tschuna, Wirangu people, South Australia, born 1949, Koonibba, South Australia, acrylic on canvas © Christine Tschuna/Arts Ceduna
The whales come a very long way from the South Pole and we need to keep our environment clean and pristine. We have more than 200 whales with their young visiting our coast.
Mother Earth is crying out, 'stop killing me, respect me, respect me'. Australians and people of the world, stand up for Mother Earth because she is innocent. We are the culture keepers here today.”
