Cissy: “I drew the fruit that we used to have back in the old days, during the mission times. The mission people planted a fruit orchard. There were so many fruits - banana, watermelon, cashew nut, pineapple, tomato. When I was growing up we still had big mob of fruits to try - I loved the cashew nut tree. Now there’s mostly just lots of mangos. This is all way before my time - so I get Rosa (who’s an elder) to help tell the story.
Mission Fruits by Cissy Unghangu
Rosa: “The mission garden had a lot of fresh veggies, fresh fruits. We did peanut farming too. Pineapples, mangos, dates, custard apples, tropical fruits: paw paws, bananas, we had everything down at the mission. Beetroots, carrots, silverbeets, capsicums, lettuce, you name it - we had everything here. It was our garden of Eden. We all helped in the garden after school.”
Cissy: “When I see my design - how it got put on the computer - I feel good. It will look good on the clothes because of the colour. It will be all kinds of colours, because of the fruit. I can't wait to see.”
“I drew the fruit that we used to have back in the old days, during the mission times. ”
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Magpie Goose acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and trade. We acknowledge their ongoing connection and custodianship for Country.
We pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly those who we work and collaborate with.
Always was, always will be.