Design and Art Australia Online

Self described craftworker, designer, songwriter and gospel singer, Esther Naomi Kirby of the Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta peoples of south-west New South Wales and northern Victoria is known mainly for her emu egg carving. Born in 1950 in Baranald (NSW), Kirby grew up on Balranald Mission in an artistic family. Her mother, Laura Kirby (nee Murray), would make her own candles, soaps, shampoos, fishing nets, floor mats, woven bags and medicinal remedies. Her father, Sam Kirby, who was born on Warrangesda Mission near Griffith in New South Wales, was a well respected egg carver and as a child Kirby learned to carve using files and knives; the tools she continues to use. Music, too, was a big part of family life for Kirby. Her father played steel and acoustic guitar, mouth organ and the squeezbox (also known as the concertina) as well as being a gifted dancer. Her brothers played guitar in local country and rock bands. Kirby won awards for singing and songwriting in the 1980s at gospel and country music festivals in Eden (NSW) and Swan Hill (VIC). She performs her own compositions as well as known gospel songs at local church gatherings.

Kirby derives inspiration for the images she carves into the emu egg shells from the Australian landscape, Dreamtime stories of her people, the art of Albert Namatjira and music. Sylvia Kleinert, in The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (2000) wrote that Kirby’s carving “reflects a more expressive style”. A style that differs, says Kleinert, from the “more common cameo-like illusion of reality by carving through several layers to reveal the almost white shell beneath.”

Kirby began seriously carving and selling her works locally at the age of 27 in 1977 when, after the death of her father, she made the decision to keep his egg carving legacy alive. Ten years later in 1986, Kirby exhibited her carved eggs for the first time in a group exhibition at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne. One of Kirby’s carved egg designs was painted onto a panel by her cousin, Maree Clarke. The panel was then fixed onto a Melbourne tram in 1988; the tram became known as the Koorie Tram. According to the website VicSig.net, the Koorie Tram advertised “Koorie Aboriginal culture” on a Z2 Class tram on November 9th 1988. Other artists involved in this project included Lin Onus and actress Justine Saunders.

To supplement her artistic income Kirby worked as an office worker, a fruit picker and as a Koorie cultural educator. In late 2005 she joined the organisation 'Triple Tribe’, which was established by Sandra Walsh and Robyn Robinson. From 'Triple Tribe’, Kirby sells her carved eggs, paintings, bags, bookmarks and cards as well as providing displays of her work and offering cultural tours of her region.

In 1995 Kirby was one of only 40 Australian women commissioned to submit an artwork for exhibition at the 1995 International Women’s Conference held in Beijing. Her work Brolga Woman was displayed for the duration of the conference before touring to Europe and then nationally within Australia where the exhibition toured through each capital city and every town the 40 artists were from. In Kirby’s case, Swan Hill Regional Gallery provided the venue and invited Kirby to present the “Welcome to Country” and to welcome the exhibition to Swan Hill. Kirby also spoke about her work and her history of egg carving.

In 2005 Kirby participated in the “Possum Skin Cloak Project” that saw artists from across Victoria invited to create designs on possum skin cloaks which were then showcased in the opening ceremony of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and exhibited at the Koorie Heritage Trust (KHT) for the duration of the Games. The project’s Artistic Director was renowned possum skin cloak maker Vicki Couzens, who, alongside Lee Darroch, Treahna Hamm and Maree Clarke, supported local artists in the creation of their own cloaks. The cloak Kirby made for this project – the Barababrarba cloak – is now in storage at the KHT where it will be kept in trust until Kirby and her community identify where they would like it to be kept within their own locale. Kirby has 14 carved emu eggs in the permanent collection of the KHT. The Melbourne Museum, too, holds some of Kirby’s carved emu eggs within their permanent collection.

Curator John Kean included two of Kirby’s eggs (one carved and one painted, with the collective title of Pondi: Boss of the River) in the exhibition “Murray Cod: the biggest fish in the river” at Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery in late 2006. The exhibition toured for two years to Albury, Mildura, Gippsland and Shepparton Regional Art Galleries as well as the Flinders University City Gallery, finishing in June 2008 at Bunjilaka in the Melbourne Museum.

In 2008, Kirby was still living and working in Kerang, Victoria.

Writers:

Allas, TessNote:

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed