Coomaditchie Artists in Conversation

Chairperson, community worker, bushcare advisor, artist Born in Nowra in the mid-1960s, Narelle is a Yuin/Jerrinjah woman and is descended from the Gunai Kurnai Nation. Narelle spent her childhood in the Shoalhaven and has lived in the Illawarra region since the 1970s. She is highly skilled in bush regeneration and is an accomplished artist and community worker. Narelle and her sister Lorraine Brown create beautiful artworks. Lorraine and Narelle work like professional dancers: one leads and the other follows and no-one steps on any toes. Narelle is a qualified Aboriginal heritage and sites worker and has participated in many archaeological surveys in the Illawarra region. Both Narelle and Lorraine are committed to their families and the Coomaditchie community.

Co-chairperson, community worker, Coomaditchie premier artist Lorraine is an experienced community worker who has supported and mentored community members for over 25 years. She is descended from the Gunai Kurnai Nation and is a Yuin/Jerrinjah woman born in Bega, one of seven children, and raised in the Shoalhaven. She moved to the Illawarra in 1972 and now calls this home. Lorraine is the premier artist of the Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation. Together with her sister Narelle, Lorraine has contributed to a prolific amount of public art in the Illawarra. She views her ability to paint as a gift. Lorraine uses bold colours that reflect her coastal upbringing. ‘We are east coast saltwater people’, she says. ‘My colours symbolise my life. I had a great childhood, great parents, family and extended family.’

Tess Allas holds a master’s of curation from The University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. She is an award-winning visual arts curator, researcher, writer and artist specialising in contemporary Indigenous art. She has worked in Indigenous cultural development since the early 1990s and has been engaged as a curator for Museums of History NSW, the Art Gallery of NSW, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (USA), the Art Gallery of South Australia, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Wollongong Art Gallery, Murray Art Museum Albury and Carriageworks. Her independently curated exhibitions as well as her own works as an artist have been shown in Australia, Finland, France, Canada and the United States. Her visual arts practice has included print-making, ceramics, installation and the film Andy Warhol on Aboriginal art, a collaboration with American artist Charlie Schneider and Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr artist Vernon Ah Kee. She has published for institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Artspace, the Remai Modern (Canada) and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (USA). She has written articles for many contemporary art journals and authored over 400 biographies of Australian Indigenous artists for the Design and Art Australia Online website (daao.org.au). In 2021 Tess co-authored two chapters on Indigenous contemporary art in two separate academic books both published by Routledge (USA). Tess says: ‘I am inspired by a sense of justice and human rights for the betterment of a strong cultural and community life. The very qualities I inherited from my activist grandfather, Jack Tattersall.’