Bronwyn Bancroft

​

In 2006 Bronwyn was approached by the Marrickville Council and the Marrickville Aboriginal Consultative Group to create a design for the Robyn Webster Sports Club located in Tempe Reserve. For this project Bronwyn developed a mural which covered all 3,800 square metres of the centre transforming the former concrete mixing shed into the largest mural in the Southern hemisphere. The artwork Bronwyn created was titled Gift Given, 2006 and utilised 5 symbols in paying homage to the original caretakers of the land, the Wangal people. Within the work can be seen the female and male forms, the sand goanna, the rainbow serpent, and a fish, replicated in different sizes and patterns to communicate the traditional stories of the Wangal people.

 

On developing Gift Given Bancroft has stated:

 

“I approached the design with with an open mind and allowed the work to develop and metamorphosise…The Rainbow serpent design is symbolic of the creation stories that pervade and are Aboriginal religion. The snake is also in the bible and tempts Eve to take the apple, thus moving man into his human environment. When you think of it in a religious sense in relation to procreation, it highlights how we all must be related. The Man and the Woman design represents the humans coming after creation, both in Aboriginal religion and Christianity. The fish design represents a link with the Marrickville Midden and is emblematic if the food that we eat as humans. The Sand Goanna is representative of the totem for the people of the area and the connection that the Goanna makes with the land.”

​

​