Micky of Ulladulla Collection

Mickey of Ulladulla, along with William Barak, Oscar from Cooktown and Tommy McRae, are artists who were wedged between their traditional Aboriginal lifestyle and one radically changed by colonial expansion in full swing during the late 1800s.

These men and their art, describes a time after their tribal lands had been broken up and given to sheep; when their families and extended families had been clustered together on the remnants of what remained; when Christian missions and the Aborigines Protection Board had begun to actively intervene in the lives of Indigenous people; and when many Aboriginal people lived in resultant poverty and destitution.

Not much is known about Mickey of Ulladulla’s early life, though the words ‘Drawn by “Mickie” an old crippled blackfellow of Nelligen, Clyde River, NSW 1875‘ inscribed some of his pencil drawings in the State Library of NSW provide a few clues.

We know that from the 1840s Aboriginal men from Ulladulla were employed by settlers to fell and mill cedar, as well as in fencing, fishing and farming.

We know Mickey had a patron, Mary Ann Gambell, the wife of the Ulladulla lighthouse keeper, who lived close to the Aboriginal Reserve at Ulladulla who was kindly to Indigenous people. And we know his language group was Dhurga.

Mickey of Ulladulla’s work is held in various collections including The National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia  and the State Library of NSW (linked above) where good digital versions of his works can be found online.

From At Home: Mickey of Ulladulla, Museums & Galleries of NSW