Wait-a-while

'Wait-a-while' is a commemorative portrait tracing the wartime experience of Pte "Gorie" Phillipe Jose. It grapples with the psychological impact of war, and the lack of recognition received by Pte Jose and other Indigenous Australians following their repatriation.

Ellen Jose, the artist and daughter of Pte "Gorie" Jose, commented, "My father was a Black Digger descendent from Horn Island in the Torres Strait who fought in New Guinea and the Pacific during the Second World War. His war experience contributed to his tragic life and early death in 1982. The experience permanently scarred him, and had a profound effect on my life and my family." "It led to the breakdown of my parent's marriage and robbed me of my father."

Produced as a series, Jose stated, "through this series of work, I hope to not only show the effects the war had on my father, but at the same time acknowledge the forgotten contribution which the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made towards the Australian war effort during the Second World War."