Vale (Farewell)
Barbara Weir
With a lot of sadness, I write of the passing of Barbara Weir on January 3rd 2023 and put to rest in the Alice Springs cemetery on February 3rd 2023.
I first met Barbara on the side of the road in Utopia – some 250 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory way back in 1985. From that day, until the day she died, we were good friends.
What an incredible lady she was. Where do I start? How do I keep this simple and not lengthy? It’s near impossible, but I will try..
Barbara was ‘bush born’ in the Utopia Outback in 1940 to Minnie Pwerle. Her father was Jack Weir, a cattle station owner. At around 9 years of age, having lived with her aboriginal family for all of those years, she was taken from that family during what became known as the ‘Stolen Generation’. Because she was ‘half caste’, she became a ward of the state.
This was an incredibly tough time of her life but she endured. As she would often say when we talked about it – ‘I had to!’. It was, in fact, phase two of her life. She had to learn English as she was banned from speaking her native tongue, Alyawarre. As bad as it was at the time, she would often tell stories that in these years she did have good times as well and met many kind people in this life journey she was on.
As the years rolled on, she married Mervyn Torres and had six children of her own – Teresa, Patrick, Fred, James, Mervyn and Charmaine. She eventually forgot where she came from but always yearned to find out and to reunite with her aboriginal family. She and her husband made hundreds of enquiries over the years in efforts to ascertain her origins. Then, with a stroke of luck, they came across an old aboriginal man by the name of Tom Williams who remembered her family and was able to tell them that she came from Utopia.
As a result, the third phase of her life was about to begin. Barbara eventually returned to Utopia and met her family, all except her mother. Barbara told me that it was three years before Minnie would meet with her - she had thought that Barbara was dead, had gone through the aboriginal mourning process and this homecoming of Barbara’s frightened her. Eventually though, they got together and became the closest of mates until Minnie passed away in 2006.
Barbara immersed herself into the community in one way or another over the next 50 or 60 years. She relearned her native Alyawarre language, plus learnt Anmatyerre, which is the other language spoken in Utopia. She learnt all about the Aboriginal Dreamtime – mythology, initiation, ceremony and sacred sites. She learnt how to hunt and collect all sorts of bush tucker and she thrived on it! Barbara learnt all the community family structures and most of the individuals out there in the 5000 square kilometres of land that comprises Utopia.
In time, Barbara also became very active in the local administration of the community and was instrumental in having Utopia cattle station handed back to the Utopia people. A few years after that, she became the first female to be the Council president! Her involvement continued in many facets until her passing.
It was in the late 1980’s that Barbara began to paint. In these years she spent a lot of her time caring for her Aunty, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and she did this right up until Emily’s death in 1996. This was a sort of reversal after Emily took Barbara under her wing 30 or so years before when Barbara first returned to her homelands.
I recall Barb when she popped into Mbantua Store back then (as she often did), telling me that she was ‘playing around’ with some paintings of her own. With a cheeky smile that only she had, she said that she would bring one in for me to look at some time in the future. It was only a week or so later she came back and showed me a very colourful, neat dot work composition – her painting career was about to take off!
Over the next 35 years she achieved and accomplished so much! Her ‘Grass Seed Dreaming’ paintings became her ‘identity’, I suppose. They were very special and very popular. She also focused on other themes including ‘My Mother’s Country’, abstract combinations of natural ochre and binder, intricate ‘My Country’ paintings and others.
In seemingly no time at all, her work was sought after by art lovers, both home and abroad. She travelled extensively, exhibiting within Australia and overseas, including the USA, Japan and Europe.
More important than anything, Barbara loved her family and was an incredible mother to her six children, up until the day she died. She was also a doting and caring grandmother and great grandmother.
Barbara, you were a very special person on this earth and didn’t miss too much. I have absolutely no doubt that you will be watching all and sundry with that keen eye of yours from up there too!
Rest in Peace.
