PHILIP HANSEN, UNTITLED, 1997

May 17

Location: Baarnimar Reconciliation Park, Throssel St

Philip Hansen, Noongar artist, was born at Katanning, Western Australia, in 1950. He spent his early childhood with his parents at the Carrolup Native Settlement near Katanning and was taken to Wandering Mission (also known as the St Francis Xavier Mission) when he was nine years old. After he left the mission in his early teens, he went to South Guildford, just to the east of Perth, to be with his mother, Marjorie Hansen. There he would sit with his mother and other older community members at Allawah Grove, which was situated close to the Swan River and full of wildlife, while they created paperbark paintings with Indian ink to be sold in shops around the town. Hansen started painting with them when he was fourteen; he was also inspired by an old Aboriginal artist from Perth called King Wally, who admired his style and gave him encouragement at this early stage. From that point on he created landscapes containing Aboriginal people and kangaroos on paperbark and canvas. His artistic practice became more established after he met his wife in Perth, and the sale of his paintings kept their young family going financially.

Hansen and his wife (married in 1971) lived together in Perth for several years before deciding to return to the southwest region of Western Australia, where they’d grown up, to make a home in Collie. Together they have six children and seventeen grandchildren, and have now been married for 50 years. Hansen has described the way he painted in a shed out the back of his property, and enjoyed teaching painting and drawing techniques to his grandchildren.

Hansen’s work has been acquired by the Collie Shire Council and the Shire of Busselton. Collie Hospital has also commissioned a number of works. Hunting by Sunset (2004), is held in the Curtin University of Technology Art Collection. This painting was acquired by Larry Foley from an exhibition of Indigenous artists from the southwest of Western Australia that Foley helped to organise at the Tom Hoad Cup (an international water polo competition) at the Melville Water Polo Club in Bicton, Western Australia. Foley donated it to the Curtin University of Technology Art Collection in 2005. The work was included in the 'Noongar Native Title: Works from the Curtin University of Technology Art Collection’ exhibition at the gallery in 2007. Hansen’s work was also included in the 'Beyond Carrolup’ exhibition at the Central TAFE Art Gallery in Perth (2009).

Source: Design and Art Australia Online, Philip Hansen

Images: Taj Kempe

COLLIE MURAL TRAIL MAP