Dunggutti painter Milton Budge was born in 1941 at Burnt Bridge Mission, Kempsey, New
South Wales. He spent his early years on the Mission before being removed at the age of
13 by the Aborigines Welfare Board to nearby Kinchela Boys Home where he spent the
rest of his childhood.
After completing his High School Leaving Certificate at Kinchela, Budge undertook an
apprenticeship in auto-mechanics at Willoughby on Sydney’s North Shore and did his
study at Ultimo Technical College. He then worked as a Telegram Delivery Boy for the
Kings Cross Post Office in Williams Street, Kings Cross before he returned to Burnt Bridge
Mission in 1960 where he undertook casual seasonal labour working on local farms.
Budge maintained an interest in art that began in childhood and painted landscapes in oils.
In 1987 Budge began painting and said of his intention at that time that he wanted to
incorporate European and Aboriginal styles together –- to combine the two.
In 1989 he was a founding member of the Kempsey Koori Artists along with David
Fernando, Mary Duroux, Raymond Paul Button, Sharon Elaine Smith and his cousin
Robert Campbell Jnr.
Budge was commissioned to create two murals in the Kempsey region. The first
commission in 1987 was for the Booroongen-Djugun Aboriginal Corporation’s Aged Care
Facility (with Sharon Smith) at Kempsey and the second mural in 1989, was painted onto
the Water Towers at Crescent Head.
Budge worked with synthetic polymer on canvas and his paintings depict Dreaming Stories
told to him by his grandmother, memories of life on Burnt Bridge Mission or cultural
memories of Aboriginal life before the European arrival.
His paintings were created using soft pastel colours that at times seem at odds with the
content of his work in particular his Mission paintings, which often depict the sad, cruel and
strict regime of a life lived on a New South Wales Aboriginal mission mid 20th century.
Budge’s first exhibition was a group show titled ‘Kempsey Koori Artists’ at Boomalli
Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Sydney in 1989. At that time Boomalli was only two years
old and in staging this exhibition announced the Kempsey group of artists to the Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal art world.
Broader appreciation for Budge’s work came soon after when in 1989, the same year as
the Boomalli show, he entered his painting Ration Day On Burnt Bridge in the 6th Annual
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the
Northern Territory (MAGNT). The painting won the Best Painting (European Medium)
category.
The following year Budge had two solo exhibitions at Roz MacAllam Gallery in Brisbane
and Framed Gallery in Darwin and participated in ‘Balance’ at the Queensland Art Gallery.
In 1992 he continued to show his work across the country with the exhibition ‘Flash
Pictures’ at the National Gallery of Australia and ‘New Art Six’ at the Roz MacAllam Gallery.
The National Gallery of Australia again showed his work in 1994 in an exhibition titled
‘Heritage’. During the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Budge occupied a stall showcasing
and selling his paintings at the Olympic site at Homebush Bay and in 2001 the Lismore
Regional Gallery produced the exhibition, ‘My Style’, which showcased the works of Budge
alongside the works of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists founding member, Jeffrey Samuels and
local Lismore artist, Digby Moran.
In 2003 Budge was invited to participate in the exhibition ‘Messages from the Fringe’ (a
satellite exhibition for the Sydney Opera House’s 2003 annual Message Sticks program) at
the Walkabout Gallery in Leichhardt, Sydney, where his work, Fish and Shellfish 2003 was
acquired by the Australian National Maritime Museum.
In 2007 Budge’s work, Ration Day Times (Working for food rations, Collecting rations and
rations), a diptych of synthetic polymer on canvas that depicts a ration day on Burnt Bridge
Mission won the 2007 Parliament of NSW Indigenous Art Prize. This work now forms part
of the Parliament of NSW art collection.