Jack Dale
Jack Dale Mengenen was born in the bush on Mount House Station about 1923. His mother, Moddera, was an Indigenous woman traditional to the Komaduwah clan estate that falls within the Mount House Pastoral Lease. .Jack's father, Jack Dale the frontiersman, according to oral accounts was a hard living man, concerned for little more than the moment.
There are no records of Jack's birth. A conservative estimate of his age based on information gleaned from the headstones of several lonely graves places him at no less than 78 years. He was born at a time when it was not uncommon for the infants of traditional women fathered by white men to be killed at birth. Such deaths could occur following instructions issued by a pastoralist, his representative, or senior Indigenous men and women concerned about future threats to traditional authority and social order. Whatever the deliberations that took place in the first few days of his life, Jack Dale is uncertain as to how or why his life was spared.
Following the death of his father he grew up in the bush with his mother's father. During this time he learned a lot about traditional law, Narrungunni and became well acquainted with station beef slain with a 'shovel-nosed spear'. As the child of a black woman and a white man, Jack Dale lived with the constant threat of being abducted by the police and the prospect of forced removal to institutions that neither he nor his extended family could have ever conceived of
In recent times he has sought to rediscover and revive his experiences of bush life through art. Neil McLeod from Burrinja Gallery worked with him in 2000 and Jack came to Melbourne in March of that year. It was the first time he had left Western Australia.
His work represents a unique first hand pictorial account of a largely unknown and never to be repeated chapter of Australian history. Jack Dale is Kimberley personified. His life has been filled with the unique experiences of a quick witted and honest man. His sometimes mischievous, though subtly crafted humour reflects his mastery of Ngarinyin, the language of his birth, and several other Indigenous Kimberley languages.
Exhibitions:
2000 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
2001 Burrinja Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney
2001 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
2002 Art Mob, Hobart
2002 Burrinja Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Michel Sourgnes Fine Arts, Brisbane
2002 Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
2003 Burrinja Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Japingka Gallery, Perth (solo)
2004 Tineriba Gallery, SA
2004 Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
2006 Framed - The Darwin Gallery, NT
2006 Jack Dale - Jalala Marking Stones for Wandjina , Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney
2006 Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2007 Kimberley Personified - Jack Dale, Art Mob, Hobart, Tas
The artwork below was featured in the Indigenous Law Bulletin November / December 2011 Volume 7 Issue 27.
