Walking with our community. Connecting with our communities.
UNCLE PAUL CALCOTT ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 2021
This is the story of Carers Queensland.
It is a great honour to unveil our new artwork from Uncle Paul Calcott of the Wiradjuri people, a community Elder living with a disability, and member of the LGBTIQ+ community. Uncle Paul is an NDIS participant and has a long relationship with Carers Queensland.
Carers Queensland’s history, and our organisation, will mean different things to different people based on their own perspective, experience, and culture.
In mid-2020, we invited a range of stakeholders to come together and look for a better way to tell our story. A way that was more meaningful and celebrated our values from the perspectives of those who live and breathe our work every day.
And we had a yarn. We all shared our history, our learnings, our experiences and our perspectives of Carers Queensland not just as an organisation, but also as a part of the community.
Uncle Paul listened, reflected, and took that learning away to give it new life from his perspective, telling our story in a way that held meaning for his culture and his experience.
The yellow dots around each person represents the fat in their skin, white for the bone and red for blood. It doesn’t matter what colour our skin is, we all have those same elements, that is our connection.
Circles are about meeting, coming together to share and support each other. All the circles across the artwork interconnect to represent the different cultures, languages, and groups we work with.
The background colours represent the diverse landscapes, from the blue of the saltwater, the yellow of the sand, to the purple and brown in the middle representing urban settings. The green in the top left-hand corner is a topographical view of the glasshouse mountains.
This wonderful artwork, and the way Uncle Paul has shared our story, shows that we respect and acknowledge the land and culture across which we work, travel, and participate.
Moving forward, this will be something of great pride and respect for Carers Queensland.
