‘Helping Hands’ was painted by Lorraine Brown and Narelle Thomas.
Lorraine Brown is the premier artist of the Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation. Lorraine is a Jerrinjah woman born in Bega, one of 7 children. Lorraine views her abilty to pain as a gift.
Narelle Thomas is one of Lorraine’s sisters and they paint together. Lorraine does the fine work and Narelle fills in the details. Lorraine and Narelle work like professional dancers, one leads and the other follows and no-one steps on any toes.
The Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation is an Aboriginal organisation dedicated to raising the esteem, pride and dignity of young Aboriginal people in their Aboriginal culture and heritage. The Cooomaditchie Artists’ Co-operative is a vital organisation.
The inspiration for ‘Helping Hands’ was – “all workers for all cultures”.
The coloured “u” shapes represent people from many backgrounds, many cultures, many areas.
The centre piece is the Legal Centre itself, a place of information, for rights, legal issues, talking area for the troubled and lost people. A place for every-one; for helping in many ways.
The black line with dots up the centre is the path into the centre itself. The circles surrounding the main circle are places people can be referred to.
The circle at the top of the painting with the u’s represent people being settled after they have been helped by the Illawarra Legal Centre.
