Judy Watson

This publication provides a rarely detailed exploration of the inspiration, history and motifs utilised in public artwork for the redevelopment of Kingsford Smith Drive, Brisbane in 2019. The selection of artist Judy Watson (born 1959), has been key to the success of this project. Her development of artwork for this site embraced and engaged women from the broader Brisbane community. This interaction with women of the past and the present has underpinned and inspired her completion of...
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This publication provides a rarely detailed exploration of the inspiration, history and motifs utilised in public artwork for the redevelopment of Kingsford Smith Drive, Brisbane in 2019. The selection of artist Judy Watson (born 1959), has been key to the success of this project. Her development of artwork for this site embraced and engaged women from the broader Brisbane community. This interaction with women of the past and the present has underpinned and inspired her completion of this artwork journey. Judy has titled the work bandarra-gan chidna: strong woman track / track of strong women (2019). At its heart, it creates a place for the important stories of Brisbane's women to be recognised, acknowledged and celebrated in a place marked by their nurturing, guidance and wisdom for millennia. From pre-contact through to settlement times, Aboriginal people used this bank of the river to access water and food. It was, as the missionary Christopher Eipper (1813- 1894) noted in his diaries, a 'thoroughfare' used to travel from the area now known as Brisbane city and further afield to the west of Brisbane to gain access to the mouth of the river. Since contact and occupation, settlers continued using this bank of the river as a transport corridor, especially after convict women 'cut the road' to Hamilton in the early 1830s. The Women's Track was informed particularly by the rich and ancient Indigenous history of this place, and it celebrates the objects, plants and innovation with which Aboriginal people occupied this place. It remembers Brisbane's penal colony and early settlement (including the 'Female Factory' jail for convict women), and it also etches the journey of Bonney into the contemporary consciousness of this place. The Women's Track has informed the ground plane artworks in key areas along the pedestrian walkway. These motifs, names and narratives reflect and reveal often untold stories of the women of this place, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. They are located primarily at Cameron Rocks Reserve and Bretts Wharf. Many of these women are not widely known, but all were survivors who made remarkable contributions in either Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal culture.