An unexpected birthday present from Number 1 daughter, the above superb book about Olive Muriel Pink, caused the Little Darwin Miss Pink file to be taken out and examined . The cover photo was taken with another birthday present , a snazzy camera from all four of my cherubs , turning me into a snap happy pappy. Must drop a hint I would like a Harley , a leather jacket, a tattoo and a course of monkey gland injections for the next birthday .
By Peter Simon
An immediate point of interest on opening the book was Olive Pink's 1929 bookplate , designed by the renowned artist Adrian Feint , his bookplates exhibited in America, which shows a naked female holding up an Olympic like torch, the motto Simplicity, Beauty, Honour and Truth. Author Gillard deserves a veritable cluster of gold medals for the wonderful book with its extensive information , photographs and artwork.
It covers Miss Pink's life from Tasmania , taking part in art classes there , her involvement with leading artists in Sydney. It was surprising to learn that her overland travels took her to Darwin in 1930 where she spent six nights in the Victoria Hotel , sending a postcard from there. If I had been aware of that and other facts , I would have asked Miss Pink to elaborate during my meetings and telephone conversations with her . But then life is full of what ifs , if only as you look back on events and encounters with people of interest .
A grand , spirited, fiercely independent woman , Miss Pink , who died in Alice Springs in 1975 at the age of 91, roamed the Tanami Desert in the 1930s carrying out anthropological studies. I visited her in Alice , spoke to and contacted many people who had dealings with her , including Professor Elkin of the anthropological publication ,Oceania , who was given a hatbox by Miss Pink and firmly instructed not to open and look at the contents until she gave permission ; former politician and Governor-General , Sir Paul Hasluck , who had a lot of respect for Miss Pink ; crusading newspaper editor Jim Bowditch , donged on the head, for some unknown reason , by an umbrella wielded by angry Miss Pink ; longtime Alice Springs identities, including one who said he believed she deliberately hastened her death by turning on an airconditioner during a cold snap .
It covers Miss Pink's life from Tasmania , taking part in art classes there , her involvement with leading artists in Sydney. It was surprising to learn that her overland travels took her to Darwin in 1930 where she spent six nights in the Victoria Hotel , sending a postcard from there. If I had been aware of that and other facts , I would have asked Miss Pink to elaborate during my meetings and telephone conversations with her . But then life is full of what ifs , if only as you look back on events and encounters with people of interest .
A grand , spirited, fiercely independent woman , Miss Pink , who died in Alice Springs in 1975 at the age of 91, roamed the Tanami Desert in the 1930s carrying out anthropological studies. I visited her in Alice , spoke to and contacted many people who had dealings with her , including Professor Elkin of the anthropological publication ,Oceania , who was given a hatbox by Miss Pink and firmly instructed not to open and look at the contents until she gave permission ; former politician and Governor-General , Sir Paul Hasluck , who had a lot of respect for Miss Pink ; crusading newspaper editor Jim Bowditch , donged on the head, for some unknown reason , by an umbrella wielded by angry Miss Pink ; longtime Alice Springs identities, including one who said he believed she deliberately hastened her death by turning on an airconditioner during a cold snap .
Late in life, Miss Pink told me "Mr Bowditch" and another journalist, whom she suspected had been drinking , called at her hut and the editor had fallen into a patch of her flowers , still depressed ages after .
With these memories running through my mind , the old ticker was pumping when I opened the Miss Pink file with its five folders . There is a 1974 message to me and photographer Ray Sharpe on personalised notepaper apologising for cancelling an invitation to call on her and partake of sherry. On coming down from Darwin we intended to photograph her residence and garden , then described by her as the Australian Arid Region's Reserve and area of Peace and Beauty, terms similar to her bookplate , of which she was honorary caretaker . She was unwell at the time . We did , however, get to see her , no photographs permitted. And she died the following year .
In her own hand , a tattered , brittle sheet of writing paper , parts missing , contains biographical details , including her activities in the Tanami . An artist and sculptor , she had been a draftswoman in the NSW Government Railways and Tramways, said to have involved in some way designing the railway part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge . Stressed in the above outline is the fact that she, fiercely independent, had carried out research amongst the Aborigines in the Centre at her own expense . Later , the Australian National Research Council (ANR) had helped.
In 1935 she pulled no punches outlining the plight of fullblood Aborigines in Australia , especially the impact of venereal infection of women impact on the population and the "sex solidarity" silence between white members aware of this situation .
In 1935 she pulled no punches outlining the plight of fullblood Aborigines in Australia , especially the impact of venereal infection of women impact on the population and the "sex solidarity" silence between white members aware of this situation .
In December 1938 , the Canberra Times published an equally strongly worded article by her , wanting to influence the future policy of the Australian government covering Aborigines. In it she roundly criticised the work of missionaries .
People who advocated religious freedom could not support a system whereby Aboriginal reserves were painted in various colours on maps denoting which religious faith held the area . This was like applying a particular religious tag as to cattle on stations in the North .
Those in the mission areas were driven like dumb cattle , the " converts" in return for doles of bread and clothes, forced to do lip service to beliefs with which centuries of their civilisation had nothing in common .
Our Aborigines were not nomads as Gypsies and they should not be made nomads, she wrote . They had well defined totemic clan estates, or had them until Europeans used them for station homes and other purposes . Australia, she pointed out , in keeping with most other countries , was at that time deeply concerned about the plight of German Jews . Yet the Jews in their social and religious persecution at least could put their own case and take steps to improve their situation .
Aborigines were inarticulate and impotent, facing religious domination , social persecution . Australians inside and outside of parliament must come to the rescue of these helpless people . She advocated each tribe be given a secular sanctuary where it could shape its own destiny in an atmosphere free of repression ; she be put in charge of one such area .
Her travels in the outback , at times painting flowers , inspired her to write an article, below , which appeared in the Sydney Mail of August 12, 1936, explaining how she could tell the time of the day by desert flora, signing herself " Truganini", the so called last Tasmanian Aboriginal woman . Flowers feature on the 1970 note paper included in the graphic .
The book is full of surprises , contains snippets of revealing information on several subjects of deep interest to me , including the artistic career of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira . It informed me Miss Pink in 1938 had been a member of the Women's Industrial Arts Society in Sydney . A member of the same organisation was another remarkable woman , the New Zealand artist also with a colourful Christian name , Violet Bowring , covered in this blog , who did a portrait of poet A.B. "Banjo" Paterson , of Waltzing Matilda and The Man from Snowy River fame , her personal papers in Special Collections, Eddie Koiki Mabo Library , James Cook University, Townsville .
Author Gillian Ward is a member of the Hobart botanical artists group Botaniko , a reference librarian, researcher , artist , photographer and graphic designer. In 2004 she curated an exhibition of Olive Pink's paintings at the University of Tasmania Library .
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NEXT : Miss Pink's open letters to the nation , union support and her " love story ."
