| Place | Oceania: Australia, Northern Territory, Ngukurr |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | AWM2018.890.1 |
| Collection type | Art |
| Measurement | Unframed: 133.8 cm x 101.5 cm x 3.5 cm |
| Object type | Painting |
| Physical description | acrylic on canvas |
| Maker |
Daniels, Jill |
| Place made | Australia: Northern Territory, Ngukurr |
| Date made | 2018 |
| Conflict |
Pre 19th century |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright |
Olden Days
Description
'Olden Days' is a frontier conflict story told to Daniels by her family. It refers to events prior to Daniels' birth, most likely during the late nineteenth- early twentieth-centuries, when Northern Territory police trackers turned up in Ngukurr to "grab the old people from the bush, put a chain around their neck, poor thing[s]." "Cruel, they were" (Jill Daniels interview by Ngukurr Arts for the Australian Memorial, 2018, translated from Kriol to English). Rounding the old people up, the police trackers wanted to take them away for work. Fearing for their lives and freedom, some people ran away from the chains, the police and their families. At the bottom of the painting, Daniels has depicted children hiding from the police in nearby shrubs. Those who ran were murdered or recaptured. It was Daniel's grandmother, 'old Debra', who was taken by the trackers, along with others from her family.
Of her work, Daniel's said: “In the old days the old people used to live in the bush, in their humpty, near the billabong. The people lived happily in these days. Then the police trackers came with horse and shot people, some got away by running into the hills and hide. Some of those old people stood with spears aiming at those police trackers. The police tracker would get people and chain them and take them away to work" (Jill Daniels, courtesy of Ngukurr Arts Aboriginal Corporation, 2018).
'Olden Days' has been painted in a naive style that is iconic to some Northern Territory communities, such as Ngukurr and Utopia. Using rich colours, Daniels has depicted the Ngukurr landscape as it once was.
Born in 1959, Jill Daniels has lived in Ngukurr most of her life. In 2003, having thought about painting, she came to Ngukurr Art Centre and was taught to paint by her sister Amy Johnston. Daniels recalls that "I saw how she was doing the painting, and I started learning then, how to paint. I got some style from her, but after that got my own style, different way. I got my own style then" (Jill Daniels for the Australian Memorial, 2018).