Collection Details

Name/TitleDharug Mudyin Garamalyi (Dharug Families Healing)

About this objectArtist’s statement:

‘This is the story of our Dharug children that were sent to live at the Blacktown Native Institution site. The original Native Institution was in Parramatta and then moved out to Blacktown on the corner of Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road, and was established in 1822.

'It was thought that Aboriginal culture could be taken out of our children at this place through schooling and domestic training, as the policy at this time was to breed out the black.

'Our children were forbidden from practising culture or speaking their language, which I have represented in the painting with digging sticks used as a clothes line.

'Along with the Dharug children there were Māori children in the institution. Some didn’t survive due to being homesick.

'It is said that the Aboriginal parents of the children stayed nearby as they wanted to have their children returned to them. The impacts of the government policies in place at that time still affect Dharug people today. The waratahs represent our healing, and the flannel flowers represent our old people, with the smoke traveling to the parents watching from afar.

'The fence shows how we were shut off. Fencing was a skill that was taught to the boys in the school.

'Many Dharug people today are connected to this place and to the children who were placed there. Dharug people are still healing.’

The painting, Dharug Mudyin Garamalyi (Dharug Families Healing), was started in 2020 in response to the Biennale of Sydney project, 'Nirin', in which the land, on which the Blacktown Native Institution site stood, was conceptualised as an artist by the Artistic Director, Brook Andrew.

MakerWatson Mulgo Redpath, Leanne

Maker RoleArtist

Date Made2025

Medium and MaterialsSynthetic polymer paint and ink on primed stretched canvas

Place MadeOceania, Australia, New South Wales, Sydney

TechniqueMixed media

MeasurementsImage: 91 h x 121 w cm

Named CollectionBlacktown City Art Collection

Credit Line© Leanne Watson. Photo: Silversalt Photography
Acquired 2025
Blacktown City Art Collection

Object TypeSynthetic polymer painting

Object numberBCC WTN 001