In this work, I reconfigure the Willow Pattern’s narrative to detail Gundagai’s catastrophic flood of 1852.
The tale of colonial hubris, loss and Wiradjuri heroism is hand-printed on painstakingly coiled cloth and embroidered to create a bowl as a gesture of remembrance.The boat of the willow pattern becomes the vessels of Wiradjuri men Jacky and Yarri, whose humanitarian rescue of 69 people immortalised them in local lore and our nation’s history. Willows becomes the River Red Gum whose upmost branches offered refuge from floodwaters, and the blue birds become sulphur-crested Cockatoos, calling high above the broken banks of the Murrumbidgee.
Artist Statement
Museums house many objects from the past and
each has a story. Pieces of broken blue and white
china found embedded in the silt many years after
the great flood of 1852 have made their way into the
Gundagai Historical Museum. These tiny fragments
from the past as well as the Willow Pattern teacup,
saucer and plate with its accompanying oral history,
allow curators to piece together the meanings and
stories behind the objects.
The blue and white design of the willow pattern has
been an enduring motif for transfer ware since the
18th century. It is this pattern that is found on
English dinnerware to this day that inspires my new
work, ‘A Vessel of Remembrance’.
I have reconfigured the narrative of the historic
willow pattern to illustrate the story of the
Murrumbidgee River flood in 1852. That historic
event’s impact on old Gundagai became the
township’s own local legend.
As I stitched my bowl for this exhibition I imagined
the settlers on that fateful day sitting together for a
meal. Perhaps their table was set with a damask
cloth worn thin, patched and darned and their blue
and white crockery, chipped and crazed. Life was
hard in a strange, and unforgiving landscape.
Old Gundagai. a town built on the river flats
between river and creek, despite the warnings of
flooding by the Indigenous community, was about to
be held to account.
As the river began to rise, the Murrumbidgee broke
its banks and the water inundated the town. The
settlers took refuge on their rooftops. Still the water
rose and those who were capable clung to the
treetops as their houses were swept away.
Wiradjuri locals, Jacky and Yarri rescued 69 people
using simple bark canoes and plucking the settlers
one by one from the water.
In my reworked willow pattern design, the Gundagai
floods become the focus. I take some elements
from the traditional blue and white pattern and
substitute them with representations of Gundagai.
The willow tree becomes the River Red Gum in
which many took refuge from the flood. The fishing
boat becomes the bark canoe with which Jacky and
Yarri, rescued many settlers. The blue birds
become Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and the water
becomes the flooded Murrumbidgee.
On the inside of the bowl Gundagai motifs are
embroidered in blue on a white damask cloth, which
has been darned and patched to represent the
hardship of those early settlers.
On the outside of the bowl screen-printed fabric is
coiled and stitched with the traditional willow pattern
in blue and white.
