From the bush to the boardroom: Changing lives one brush stroke at a time

Decades of sitting in committee meetings have served artist George Cooley well. Cooley, a senior Indigenous community leader from Coober Pedy, would often while away those gatherings by doodling.

“You get bored and you draw,” he says. “Drawings about Country, drawings about home, little scribbles in my notebook.”

Fast-forward to 2021 and Cooley – also an opal miner and a talented songwriter and performer – was persuaded to try his hand at painting at the new Umoona Community Arts Centre in Coober Pedy.

Initially, he used canvas and paint, before graduating to board and pallet knife, which was a revelation.

“It gave me a bit of a jolt,” he says. “I was able to get the blending of the colours to look almost exactly like the country I’ve been working on opal mining, hunting and camping.”