Footwear, Palembang

Place Asia: Netherlands East Indies, Sumatra, Palembang
Accession Number ART29436
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 3 x 9.4 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description pencil on paper
Maker Gunther, Pat
Place made Netherlands East Indies: Sumatra, Palembang
Date made 1943-1944
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

Various footwear is on a table and a crying face is above the words 'Siesta hour'. These drawings were done while Gunther was a P.O.W. The artist would sell her drawings in order to get money to buy food on the black market. Gunther was one of 32 Australian nurses who became prisoners of the Japanese in Sumatra. Together with approximately 500 civilian internees, mainly British and Dutch women and children, the nurses occupied the Palembang camp from September 1943 to November 1944. Remarkably, during her imprisonment Gunther was able to produce a number of small drawings, depicting the nurses' experiences in captivity, which she sold to buy food on the black market.