Search for Nyungar children’s artwork goes global

The Perth exhibition of Carrolup Coolingah Wirn at the John Curtin Gallery. Photo credit: Sue-Lyn Moyle. A search is underway in the United Kingdom for hundreds of missing artworks created by children of the Stolen Generations in the south-west of Western Australia. It comes as a selection of the treasured collection, created by Nyungar children forcibly taken from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s, are showcased in two new exhibitions in Manchester and Glasgow, presented as part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22. It is the first time this selection of artworks has returned to the UK in 70 years - after London Soroptimist Club Founding President Mrs Florence Rutter first met the artists and arranged exhibitions across London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow during the 1950s. Proceeds from the sale of the artworks were used to purchase more drawing materials for the children at Carrolup. Mrs Rutter recognised the significance of the works after visiting Carrolup in 1949, where teachers Noel and Lily White had found a way into the hearts of the children through art.