“Whooooh, I recognise that face, that’s me,” a very happy Aunty Jenny Munro says on viewing her larger than life mural.
Standing next to Aunty Jenny Munro, you can’t help but to feel her strength and the unconditional love for her culture and her people.
RELATED STORIES;
Jenny Munro brings Tent Embassy back to Redfern
Her fire burns bright and her sacrifices are large, but her continuous fight for Aboriginal rights has inspired a generation.
It’s a spirit captured anytime you glimpse the Aboriginal flag mural at the Block in Redfern: the backdrop of an Aboriginal rights movement and the home of the Tent Embassy Aunty Jenny championed.
Now just a stone’s throw away, another mural is spreading the Wiradjuri Elder’s legacy.
ANZ Bank has commissioned artist Adnate to paint a ten-storey high version of Aunty Jenny on the Novotel.
She is hoping that people will think about the Aboriginal struggle and unfinished business of the nation when they view her mural watching over Sydney city.
“We’ve been denied justice in our land for a very long time; in fact we have never had justice on our own land,” she said.
“The country called Australia was birthed on our land and our blood was shed in that birth.
“We need to go back to the drawing board, we’ve had unfinished business for 228 years.”
In 2014 Jenny Munro began the Redfern Tent Embassy to protest the establishment of a commercial precinct on the area known as ‘The Block’ in Redfern, Sydney.
After more than 400 days of occupation, the Redfern Tent Embassy declared a victory, with $5 million committed by the Australian Government to guarantee the construction of low cost housing for poor Aboriginal people.
Matt Adnate is a world renowned street artist, and although controversial in some sectors of the Aboriginal arts community, his works of Aboriginal people have gained worldwide attention.
The Eyes
"I sometimes paint a reflection of what was there": Artist Matt Adnate. Source: Danny Teece-Johnson
A stand out feature in Adnate’s works is the eyes of his subjects.
“I often paint landscapes in the eyes. If you’re not looking into someone’s eyes, you’re not really communicating with them properly,” he said.
“Sometimes the landscape is a reflection of what’s directly opposite the mural.”
“But with Aboriginal people, I sometimes paint a reflection of what was there. It pushes an important message of what was taken from them.”
Aunty Jenny agrees.
“He’s done a great job; I think he’s really captured my spirit,” she said.
Jenny Munro's mural taking shape. Source: NITV News
