Paddy

Description

My old granddad, Patrick Brady, was born out Charters Towers way in 1900. He joined the 1st World War in 1914 as a 14-year-old, then returned to service in 1917, hoping that his contribution to his country would enable a better living on his return to his country of birth. This sadly wasn’t the case as it was for many of our other dear old black soldiers. He was a great stockman, a handsome man of tall stature. He went on to marry my grandmother, Ethel Solomon-Emerson, a proud Birrigubba woman and had 5 children together. He also had 2 twins to a previous relationship on Palm Island. He loved the Proserpine area, where he and Granny Ethel had an old humpy on the hills outside of the town area where great-grandmother Cora Emmerson owned property, but some underhanded deals had seen the sacred plot sold off to cane growers in the area, leaving the family destitute and on the fringes of society. This impacted old granddad in his outlook and decision-making regarding his family. He died of a stroke in his early 70’s penniless on the main street of Proserpine.

The process of creating this painting placed me in the footprints of gummi (granddad) and I’d learned through conversations with my father that the hard times they’d endured of dad walking beaches looking for leftover food, or taking his little gun up in the mountains to catch bush turkey for the family at an early age, were the norm. From stories passed down, granddad sat with his brother Donald Brady in Brisbane, which was a powerful ceremony for those present to see 2 old brothers crying on each other’s shoulders. It’s the story of 2 peaceful brothers, Jawi Yabba, 2 brother mountain story that’s been passed down the line to my grandchildren, Wawanji and Wandiji, as that cultural spear continues its journey passed down from the Dreamtime, which I saw fit to paint them old ones in their old world, interfacing historical streets of Proserpine.