In the Footsteps of Bella Kelly: Touring exhibition honouring renowned Noongar artist headed to Katanning

A groundbreaking exhibition honouring the legacy of the late Noongar artist Bella Kelly and featuring works by her daughter, artist Caroline Narkle, is heading to Katanning. Organised by environmental community project group Green Skills, the offering comes after a project in which Noongar artists including Narkle and her partner Frank Krakouer painted on location with Wadjella artists around the Great Southern. Green Skills senior project manager Basil Schur said the exhibition, In The Footsteps Of Bella Kelly, celebrated Kelly and the broader tradition of Noongar landscape art. “The exhibition honours a famous Noongar artist, Bella Kelly, but also the whole Carrolup children’s art movement which was based at Carrolup Mission near Katanning, and there will be the Katanning Art Gallery’s Carrolup collection also exhibited at the same time,” he said. “Bella Kelly had a very important role in the Carrolup art movement - not only were four of her children Stolen Generation and placed in the mission, but she herself camped nearby and is accredited with having taught the children her knowledge of art.” Exhibition group artists, accompanied by Great Southern TAFE art lecturer and visual artist Nikki Green, painted on farms near Woogenellup, Kendenup, and Rocky Gully, including Green Skills’ Tootanellup property. “It’s been fabulous to have these landscape paintings created out on farms and properties that also have a focus on land care,” Schur said. “Green Skills is a land care organisation, and so this project is both about connecting people and artists to appreciate our landscape but also allowing connection of Noongar people back to their cultural heritage, including that of the famous Mt Barker Noongar artist Bella Kelly.” Three Kelly landscapes feature in the exhibition, as well as a recently discovered painting by Carrolup artist Revell Cooper, and Schur hopes the touring exhibition that will visit Kojonup and Albany later in the year can start a conversation about Noongar art. “We hope it’s the start of a greater acknowledgment of some very accomplished Noongar artists from the Great Southern,” he said. “I think what we’d like the community to realise is that our Noongar community has not only given us famous footballers, but in fact we’ve got some very accomplished artists who have come out of the Great Southern community who deserve much greater recognition.” In The Footsteps Of Bella Kelly will be on show at the Katanning Art Gallery from May 10-June 1.