Seven Artworks Title – I’m Allowed To Be Me
Gamilaroi man Uncle Robert ‘Bobby’ Young was sent to KBH in the 1950s. He was given the number 24 and told his parents had passed away. However, Uncle Bobby met his mother years later by accident in a Redfern TAB and she was very much alive! So was his father.
After being mistreated and abused in KBH, Uncle Bobby has found a way to be himself through the rediscovery of his artistic talent while attending literacy classes held, in recent years, by KBHAC. The classes have helped Uncle Bobby to rebuild his confidence while improving his reading and writing skills and now that confidence has guided him to paint and he shows no sign of stopping now!
Uncle Bobby had shown some artistic talent in his younger years with occasional drawings and doodles, but his paintings now are strong in connection – for himself, to country and with Mother Earth. The native animals Uncle Bobby paints are connected to Dreaming stories and cultures and are often reminders of places and people who mean something to him. For example, Uncle Bobby’s nickname in KBH was Bullfrog.
His most special group of people is the family he has created with his wife, Aunty Pamela, also a Stolen Generations Survivor. Together they have three sons, grandkids and several great grandchildren who are all proud of Uncle Bobby’s achievements.
While his artworks might be a world away from the labouring, truck driving and garden maintenance jobs he was employed in throughout his working life, Uncle Bobby’s story is a deadly reminder that no matter how hard KBH tried to eliminate his cultural connections, he was able to find his way back to reclaim and restore his links to culture that has finally enabled that shy and withdrawn little boy to shine in his ability to be himself as the strong and talented man Uncle Bobby has now become.
