Cairns based emerging artist, Simone Arnol is a Gunggandji women. 

Located on the lands of the Gunggandji people in coastal Far North Queensland, Yarrabah is a vibrant, cultural place and is widely acknowledged as the largest Aboriginal community in Australia. Yet, like much of colonised Australia, Yarrabah holds a complex and tumultuous history of violent displacement and cultural suppression due to missionisation. This history has often been recounted from a non-Aboriginal perspective and typically focuses on the life and work of mission superintendent, Ernest Gribble [1868-1957], or a toned-down interpretation of the Aboriginal experience. There is limited literature that offers true insight into the deeply personal legacies and stories of the early Aboriginal residents of the Yarrabah mission days from 1892-1960. 

Born in c.1880s, the late Tottie Joinbee was one of the early Aboriginal residents removed to Yarrabah. She lived to 110 years and was affectionately known as Granny Tottie. She remains a deeply respected woman who held onto her cultural identity and knowledge despite the efforts of the colonial enterprise. 

Drawing upon oral history accounts and Kathleen Denigan’s Reflections of Yarrabah 2008, Arnol recreates the memories and significant events of Granny Tottie, ultimately forming a visual record of her great grandmothers’ life. The 1899 Yarrabah: Church of England Aboriginal Mission: rules and regulations booklet, also informs Arnol’s portraits revealing deplorable accounts of starvation, slave labour and punishment.  Each portrait is layered with a multitude of meanings, perspectives and history, with the dramatic and symbolic colour red tethering the works together. 

This deeply personal and evocative series of works exemplifies the power of contemporary portraiture in its ability to retell and ‘regenerate’ people and histories that were deliberately minimised, disregarded and suppressed. seeRED is a heart-wrenching visual and aural testimony to the history of Yarrabah and Granny Tottie, connecting the past with the present and to the future.

by Rebecca Ray (Meriam), First Nations Curator, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra