Wapperty 1866 (from Woolley)
Acrylic and Pastel on Linen, 2023
102cm x 76cm
$2,300
Wapperty is my ancestral aunt – the sister of my direct ancestor, Woretemoeteryenner, both daughters of the Palawa chief Mannalargenna. Wapperty died at the Oyster Cove Aboriginal settlement south of Hobart in August 1867. This work is based on a photograph taken by Charles Woolley one year earlier.
Born in more peaceful times, Wapperty’s traditional lifestyle was decimated by the conflict of colonisation. Wapperty was a survivor and had a family on the Bass Strait Islands with a European sealer. She was taken to the Aboriginal “establishment” at Wybalenna, Flinders Island in its final stage, then transferred to Oyster Cove south of Hobart with the last few traditional Tasmanians.
Over the course of her lifetime Wapperty lost everyone and everything she had ever known or loved. Too much sadness for one life.
