Image: Cecil Hoskins
22 September - 7 October 2005
An exhibition of paintings completed by Cecil Hoskins as part of the TAFE Aboriginal art programme at Goulbourn Correctional Centre is now showing in the Long Gallery.
Junga (Cecil Hoskins), a Yurren man, was born on the South Coast of New South Wales, Bega.
Junga was a child of the Stolen Generation. At age seven he was taken from his Aboriginal parents along with his six cousins and placed in a 'Boys Home' in Sydney. Junga and his family of cousins remained together until he was ten, when he was sent to Berry to another institution. He was re-united with his cousins a year later at Mittagong, but this was short-lived. Junga was fostered out soon after by a local woman, Del Throsby. Del was an English lady who ran a horse-riding school. She tought Junga how to read and write and became a true mother to him.
Jung left Del at age eighteen in search of his family on the South Coast. This reunion was a significant event in his artistic life. He started painting soon after.
Junga has now been painting for thirteen years. His work is done from memory and is an expression of his cultural experience, both on the coast and in the inland bush. It depicts recollections of a traditional life style. Painting cultural reflections is a passion for Junga; it is his way of reclaiming the aboriginal culture which was wrenched from him as a young child. He now has a wife and children of his own.
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