TOMMY MCRAE

Nineteenth century artist Tommy McRae lived and worked along Victoria’s upper Murray River area during the disruption and ultimate end of traditional tribal life amongst the Aboriginal people of South-Eastern Australia. European settlers, gold-diggers and pastoralists increasingly took over their traditional hunting grounds and homelands. Like many of his people, McRae found a livelihood by working for the new landowners as a stockman and drover. It was not until he was in his fifties and towards the end of this physically demanding work life that he began to draw consistently.

After being noticed and collected by Theresa Walker (Mrs. G.H. Poole), the artist and wife of a local landowner, Tommy’s naturalistic, figurative drawings were shown to other ‘society whites’. The steady flow of interest and paid commissions that followed allowed McRae to set up an independent camp for himself and family on the shores of Lake Moodemere, a large freshwater lake, rich in plant and animal life and of ceremonial importance to his people. Most of his distinctive pen and ink drawings were made during the two decades of his life there, looking back over his memories and giving a unique, often witty, viewpoint upon a changing world.

The true artistic and historical significance of McRae has only emerged relatively recently. Although he was well known within his locale and according to accounts, cut quite a figure in the rural landscape; driving into town in a horse-drawn buggy and attending race meetings in full gentlemanly attire, McRae’s status was undermined by prevailing racial prejudices of the time. (Sayers, 1994,p.49) European colonialists assumed their superiority in all ways and this included the area of artistic expression. Traditional Aboriginal art, like other abstract and geometrical art forms, was considered primitive, only an early step towards the development of full figurative representation that reached its zenith in the realism of European Art. Although it often included figurative motifs and a strongly developed linear aspect, Aboriginal art was seen as a curiosity or collected as anthropological evidence. The rare few names that have emerged from this obscuring viewpoint were considered at the time, to be imitative and to have simply responded well to the European influence. They were deserving of a certain amount of appreciation but they could never become ‘famous’ in the individual sense. (Cooper, 1994) Despite his flair for realistic representation, this negating attitude was evident in the accreditation to ‘a native artist’ of McRae’s drawings that appeared in several books and exhibitions of the time. When asked by an interested reviewer for more details as to the unnamed artist who had illustrated her Australian Legendary Tales 1896, author Kate Langloh Parker named McRae, describing him as “a clever black” whose art, “has a look of life mine never has.” (Sayers, 1994,p.50)

It is this ‘look of life’ that distinguishes McRae’s drawings. His images tell a story in a captivating and convincing manner, his silhouette-like figures infused with an animated spirit. He transports his audience to see things afresh, like all great works of art, peeling back the layers of habit and expectation with a sparse yet strikingly expressive use of line. McRae’s focuses on three main subject areas: scenes from traditional Aboriginal life (such as hunting and ceremony), the new occupiers (particularly the proprietorial squatter in top hat and riding boots) and the mythic story of ‘the wild white man’, (William Buckley, who escaped from a convict ship in 1803). McRae’s landscape settings are brief, one or two trees, with singular birds, fish or animals, so superbly rendered that they can be identified as to specific species.

McRae’s keen sense of observation underlies his masterful talent. In corroborees, lines of dancers cross the page, their bent legs interlocking in a rhythmic pattern, each dancer carefully delineated with particular patterns or possibly a characterizing tribal adornment; bunched leaves tied to their lower legs or feathered head-dresses for example. (Sayers, 1994,p.33) The moment before capture is a favourite hunting tale, with intently poised men, sometimes holding a bush camouflage before them, their spears about to fly at an unsuspecting kangaroo, emu or fish. Although ritual-like fighting duels provide another popular subject, explicit racial conflict is never present; the self-satisfaction of the new land-owner is conveyed with wry amusement or Chinese gold-diggers are chased away in a spirited sketch of comic disarray. McRae’s rendition of the William Buckley story focuses on two moments; Buckley being found by Aboriginal people and his full participation in tribal life. The saying ‘jump up white man’ sprang from a rumoured Aboriginal belief that white people were souls returned from the dead. A belief, Buckley later told his biographer John Morgan (1852), that was responsible for his full acceptance by them, though in retrospect the tale really marks the beginning of the white incursion and the gradual displacement of the Indigenous culture. McRae was undeterred by the European renditions of the Buckley tale that focused upon the convict’s eventual discovery, pardon and return to white society. As in all his artworks, McRae’s point of view is distinctly his own, revealing the strong sense of identity that makes his drawings all the more unique. In1897, he took a photographer to court for refusing to pay a fee he had promised.

McRae found a patron on the nearby property owned by Roderick Kilborn, who collected his drawings and regularly supplied him with new inks and sketchbooks. Kilborn also organized commissions, including a gift to the governor that generated much interest. McRae was highly regarded and well patronised. Yet sadly, this did not prevent his children from being removed according to the laws of the time, despite his concerted appeals to powerful friends. When he wished to buy a house for his family with his well-earned funds; the Board for the Protection of Aborigines promptly dismissed his request. After his death, many of McRae’s drawings were collected and housed in museum archives. They were considered to be examples of ‘the dawn of art’ or an historical record of nineteenth century life, largely inaccessible to the general or art-loving public. However, this situation changed during the 1970’s when new generations of Aboriginal artists sought out their predecessors with a will to reclaim Aboriginal history and identity. (Onus, 1993) Although it is clear that his naturalistic style developed in some part as a response to European demand, McRae’s vantage point upon an important era in Australia’s history is sincere and the stamp of his own personality is remarkably distinct. During the 1980’s and 1990’s McRae’s drawings were included in major touring exhibitions and as Sayers concludes in his definitive study, McRae is now acknowledged as a significant figure in the history of Australian visual culture. Like other past Aboriginal masters (including Albert Namatjira of the Hermannsburg School and William Barak, also of Southeast Victoria), McRae’s artistic practise is now acknowledged as “a creative choice within a culture of extraordinary complexity.”(Sayers, 1994,p.88) The fragility of these now rare works enhances their Ingenious beauty.

References:

Cooper, Carol, ‘Traditional visual culture in south-east Australia’ in Sayers, Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press Australia, 1994

Onus, Lin, ‘Southwest, Southeast Australia and Tasmania’ in Aratjara; Art of the first Australians, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993

Sayers, Andrew, Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press Australia, 1994