Family Washing by Wanda Gibson

“My design takes me back to my childhood when we used to go to the beach for a holiday every year. We only got two weeks holiday from mission life. It would take us two days to walk to the beach! It’s 45km, so if we left at 6am on the first day we’d arrive by 6pm the second day. We had to carry everything - food, blankets, clothes - so we could only take three dresses: one to wash, one to wear, and one spare. 

We’d build a humpie down there to sleep under. When we had to do our washing, we’d roll a 44 gallon drum down to the creek, boil water in the drum, hang it up, and wait for it to dry! I drew the style of dresses the Lutheran Church used to give us for Christmas. At Christmas time we would get dresses, or pants, a jacket maybe, and a few toys. We used to look forward to our new clothes.”

This design was created at the HopeVale Arts and Culture Centre during a workshop with Cairns based Textile artist Bobbie Rueben.