An aura of peace and calm exudes from Sharyn Egan. And it’s powerful.
As she ambles across Dixon Reserve in Hamilton Hill with a gaggle of little dogs in tow, basking in the treat of a sunny winter’s day, the artist reflects on her 69 years.
While admitting to feeling like she was merely surviving for much of her life, the thrill of thriving in her own existence has begun to provide overdue comfort in recent years.
Ensconced in a world of constant creativity – mostly painting, drawing, sculpture and weaving – Sharyn is well respected and loved by the WA and Australian arts community, the Cockburn community and of course, family and friends near and far.
Her art can be seen in large public installations nationwide and here in Cockburn, or appreciated via intimate weaving workshops, but within all are the immediately recognisable common threads of beauty, dignity and humanity.
Sharyn’s story is the 21st instalment in our Quintessentially Cockburn series, which features the inspiring and varied characters who comprise our eclectic and diverse community.
Sharyn has lived in Cockburn for more than 33 years in Bibra Lake, Yangebup and Hamilton Hill and her relationship with this area is both complex and prosaic.
She happily calls it home and longs to return after time away, back into the knowing fold of family and friends.
But 66 years ago, Sharyn and her baby sister were taken from their parents by government welfare authorities raiding Aboriginal family camps on the shores of Bibra Lake.
They are members of the Stolen Generations.
While Sharyn and her sister were held in the same mission, they were kept separate and not encouraged to have a sisterly relationship. An older sister was already there.
They never got to meet their mum again.
These life-altering experiences inform Sharyn’s art, an outlet to reclaim her story and share her knowledge of Nyungar life, and those of other Aboriginal communities around Australia, through a consultative and therapeutic art practice.
Sharyn was taken to the New Norcia Mission as a three-year-old and left aged 12 when she was fostered by a South Perth family.
“The older girls at New Norcia were taken from their families when they were older and knew and remembered their parents and brothers and sister,” she said.
“I often feel it was worse for them. I didn’t really know what I had lost because I adapted as a young child with little or no memories from before that time.
“It wasn’t until I went to high school that I started realising what had happened.”
She attended (former) Cannington Senior High School where she immediately gravitated toward other Aboriginal students living at Sister Kate’s (children’s cottage home) in Queen’s Park.
“That’s how I found a new family, I saw people who looked like me, a bit lost and out of place,” Sharyn said.
“We were all trying to fit in, say and do the right thing. We had to become our own parents really.
“I started hearing stories about what had happened to us. We were all told our parents didn’t want us or had died, and that’s why we had been taken to the missions and never saw them again.
“We were laughed at because we spoke differently and we had to develop very thick skins. But we’ve never lost contact, we are all still friends today.”
Sharyn’s survival instincts kicked in early and unless they were truly awful people, she made friends with the most popular, beautiful girls at the schools she attended.
“I’m not sure why. I think I was attracted by beauty and it turns out I still am. My eye sees beauty and I appreciate it every day,” she said.
“I think this ability has helped me immensely through the years, without even realising it.”
With the encouragement of her high school guidance officer, Sharyn enrolled in a graphic art course at Perth Tech because she wanted to draw and paint.
“I only just passed the first year. I didn’t really like it, I wasn’t very good at it, especially the signwriting. They let me continue into the second year mostly because they liked me I think, but I eventually left to work at an industrial laundry in Perth to earn some money.
“It was hard work, menial, repetitive labour. Then I ended up in Exmouth working at a fish factory, which was similar but the weather was warm and it was such a beautiful environment.”
Over the next few years Sharyn worked all over Australia to make ends meet including in Balladonia, Broome, Darwin and cattle stations in the Kimberley, where armed with a Margaret Fulton cookbook from an op shop, she learned to master roast beef for hordes of hungry roustabouts.
Sharyn began discovering her own story as an adult, with state records confirming her unwanted membership of the Stolen Generations.
Further back, it turns out Sharyn’s early ancestors, including her Irish father, lived in New Norcia in the 1800s, decades before she was stolen and forced there as a ward of the state.
Her Aboriginal grandmother hailed from Moora, other relatives were from Albany and her grandparents had 10 children who settled all over Western Australia.
She ended up back in Perth where she had her first child and eventually completed a Year 11 and 12 bridging course before being accepted into psychology studies at Curtin University.
A second child came along and again her studies were on hold until she restarted her formal education as a 37-year-old, completing an arts diploma at the Claremont School of Arts.
She has since achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Finance and an Associate Degree in Culture and Aboriginal Art at Curtin University.
She became a TAFE arts teacher around Perth and after many years decided to stop teaching to nurture the return of her own creativity. She finally began to enjoy her art practice and has contributed to public art collections over decades.
She is currently planning to exhibit new work in upcoming exhibitions and is relishing having a reason to prioritise her own art. She will gradually pull back from some of the activities that have always kept her busy, including multiple showings at Sculpture by the Sea where she was Tourism WA’s Invited Aboriginal Artist in 2024.
Sharyn’s work has featured in the City of Cockburn’s Show Off exhibition for all but one of the 21 annual showcases since 2003, her work is included in the City’s art collection and you can see her public artwork in the City.
“I guess I am getting older but my attitude is young, perhaps even childish or naïve. There is so much yet to do,” she said.
Among them is the ongoing reconciliation process, which she addresses through her healing artistic practice.
“I don’t actually call it reconciliation. Aboriginal people never had a conciliatory or equal relationship with the colonisers,” Sharyn said.
“I feel like reconciliation has gone a bit backwards in recent times. The behaviour of people like (US President Donald) Trump and (One Nation leader Pauline) Hanson seem to make it ok to be a racist.
“It’s like they are giving people permission to be that way, to put more barriers in the way of First Nations people. I’m unsure of what will happen but I know that truth telling is going to be important.”
See Sharyn’s local public art installations at the following locations:
Aboriginal Memorial Art Work – Yandi Park, Cockburn Central:
Series of 7 separate works, spread out along the length of the board walk. The 2.2m high x 700mm diameter cylinders feature 14 human-scale figures representing Aboriginal service men and women, as well as some more traditional warrior figures. Each figure is set against the image of a traditional hand-carved shield, representing the 14 Nyoongar tribes.
The Guardians and the Waugal – Little Rush Lake, with Mick Counsellor:
Sharyn's installation uses layers of paint and colour and the figures within to represent the ongoing custodianship of the place - past, present and future. Mick Counsellor's installation explores the myth of the Waugal, the giant serpent who local Aboriginal people believed appeared during the dreamtime.
Find out more about Public Art in Cockburn on the City’s
website.
Article and images by Michele Nugent
Media & Communications Advisor
City of Cockburn
Telephone: 9411 3551
Email:
[email protected]