Bill Congoo’s bark painting of the life of Senator Neville Bonner

The bark painting was made by Neville’s nephew Bill Congoo and shows Neville’s life in four scenes. The first scene shows Neville’s birthplace at Ukerebagh Island, Tweed Heads, NSW. Baby Neville is sitting on his father’s lap, near a humpy. Stories told about Neville’s early life say that he was born into poverty, under a palm tree; that he only had only one year at school, and learnt to speak English from his grandmother. The second scene depicts the time when Neville lived on Palm Island with his wife Mona and five sons, and hunted dugongs and turtles. Apparently, Neville and his father-in-law made the boat he is shown fishing in. The third section of the painting tells of Neville’s move to Ipswich where he began to mix more with Europeans and became involved in politics. The final panel in the artwork is of Neville as a Senator and shows him sitting in a circle with three other politicians.

Linking all the parts of the painting are footsteps which trace a journey through Neville’s life. Over time, as Neville’s life and career changed, and he intermingled more with European Australians, his dark footprints became intertwined with white footprints.

We are very pleased that this bark painting is ending its journey in the collection of the Museum of Australian Democracy. It was here at Old Parliament House that Neville began his 12-year career in federal politics, and where he made his final mark on Australian politics as a representative to the 1998 Constitutional Convention. Not long before his death in February 1999, Neville gave this bark painting to his son.

Creation
During the 1970s, a Palm Island artist by the name of Bill Congoo decided to depict the life of his friend and distant relative, Neville Bonner, on a sheet of bark. Although not a commercial painter, Bill skillfully outlined Neville’s life from his birth under a palm tree in northern NSW, his life on Palm Island where he and his wife Mona raised five children, his increasing interaction with white Australia through his political activity, and finally his elevation to the federal parliament in 1971 as the first Aboriginal senator. Bill gave the bark painting to Neville during one of the latter’s visits back to Palm Island in the 1970s. Neville treasured the painting, and on his death in 1999 it passed to his youngest son, Alfred ‘Tiny’ Bonner.

Donation
In late 2015 Neville’s great-niece, Narelle Anderson, contacted the museum to ask if we would be interested in receiving the Bill Congoo bark painting as a donation. Once we saw a photo of the artwork we realised what an important piece it was, and what a significant addition it would be to the museum’s existing Bonner collection. By this time Tiny Bonner, still living on Palm Island, was worried about the painting’s future, asking Narelle to find a good home for it. Further correspondence took place and then, in January 2016, Tiny, Narelle, and two of Tiny’s daughters came to Canberra for a formal handover. It was the first time they had been in the building, and the Senate Chamber, where Neville had worked for twelve years, and it was an emotional occasion.