Research funded by the City of Greater Geelong has confirmed a mural at the Old Geelong Gaol is the work of former inmate and well-known First Nations artist Revel Cooper.
Cooper was a prominent member of a Noongar art movement that emerged among children living at the Carrolup Native Settlement during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Cooper was imprisoned in Geelong from the 1960s to early 1970s. He spent much of his life in gaol, but still sold paintings regularly and was a prominent influence on the trail blazing First Nations artist Lin Onus.
His work is found in several collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Holmes à Court Gallery, Fremantle Prison, and the Berndt Museum of Anthropology.
The mural is located in the Chapel on the gaol’s second floor and has only been accessible to the public since January this year.
Measuring 12 metres by three metres, the mural features two people looking at a sunset. Other inmates have added to the mural, including images of a reptilian kangaroo and crocodile, an early design of the Aboriginal flag, and Bungdil (a wedge tailed eagle) with a rabbit in its claws.
The Gaol closed in 1991 and the remaining prisoners were transferred to the newly constructed Barwon Prison.
Grant funding of up to $60,000 was provided under the City’s new First Nations Cultural Heritage Grants to conserve the Cultural narrative of the artwork, and to work closely with the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, the Cooper family and broader First Nation communities as an intangible Cultural restoration project.
The second round of the First Nations Cultural Heritage Grants includes up to $100,000 for projects that recognise, restore, protect and preserve, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
