“Running Away from Roelands” brings to life a grandparent’s story of children escaping from the Roelands Mission near Bunbury against a backdrop of brilliant dusk colours.
“They’d head off just at sunset so they’d get clearance,” the artist says. “They knew the country well, so they had a good idea where to go when it got dark.
“They’d always get caught a couple of days later and brought back. All they wanted was to be with family.”
The artist is among five prisoners with paintings in the annual exhibition at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery.
Most were painted by prisoners at Albany Regional Prison and are interpretations of landscapes from Country, tying in with this year’s theme of Celebrating Continuing Connection to Noongar Boodja.
One of the artworks, "Home Country", won the Landscape Award.
The Department of Justice is a regular contributor of Aboriginal prisoner art to the exhibition.
“Noongar Country is a great opportunity for prisoners to tell stories through art about their Country to the community,” Department Arts Coordinator Sophie Davidson said.
“It also gives the public exposure to the quality of artworks being produced within custodial facilities.”
The creator of the Roelands piece says he first picked up a paint brush in prison about three years ago, learning his craft from Corrective Services art instructors and fellow prisoners.
“I thought it was a pretty good idea, you know, a good way to sort of connect to Culture. It’s helping me being safe (while) being away from family, being incarcerated.”
Another of his recent paintings has been selected for the prestigious Revealed 2025 exhibition in Perth of new and emerging WA Aboriginal artists.
He has recently enrolled in Visual Arts studies at Curtin University through the Justice and Equity Through (JETA) program.
“Education is a critical part of the rehabilitation and reintegration process, and art studies can act as a gateway to education,” Ms Davidson said.
The Noongar Country exhibition opens on Saturday, 29 March at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and runs until 20 July.
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