Geoffrey Narkle, Noongar artist, was born in Narrogin in the southern wheatbelt region of Western Australia in 1951. The son of Bella Kelly and Largy Narkle, he spent his early childhood in the Clayton Road Reserve which was situated a mile west of Narrogin. Largy earned a living clearing land, and he and Bella would also tan possum skins to sell. Later, Largy acquired citizenship papers under the Western Australia Natives (Citizenship Rights) Act, which exempted – on certain conditions – Aboriginal people from the usual restrictions that applied to them due to their race. This 'dog license’ or 'dog act’ as it was often known within the Aboriginal community allowed Largy to travel further afield and work as a shearer.
When he was eight years old, Narkle and his younger sisters Cheryl, Enid and Caroline Narkle were taken away from their family and committed to the care of the Child Welfare Department. Geoffrey and his sisters were staying with relatives while their parents were in Perth attending a funeral when a car arrived to take them to Wandering Mission, also known as St Francis Xavier Mission, in Wandering, which was seventy kilometres northeast of Narrogin. Wandering Mission, which operated between 1944 and 1976, housed many Aboriginal children from the southwest of Western Australia who were removed from their families, including the celebrated Binjarib artist Laurel Nannup .
Narkle stayed at the Mission until he was fourteen years old, before being transferred to the Palatine Training Centre where he remained until he was eighteen. The trauma of being taken away from his parents marked him deeply, as is conveyed in the autobiographical play King Hit , which Narkle co-wrote with playwright David Milroy in 1997. Narkle only saw his father once more as Largy died soon after the children arrived at Wandering mission. The first opportunity to see his mother came three years after he arrived at the mission when a trip was planned for the children to travel to the Narrogin Show. However Narkle, who was 'head boy’ at the time, was punished for not reporting another boy’s theft of food from the pantry by not being allowed to travel to Narrogin with the rest of the children. His mother, Bella, was not able to visit him until years later when he was in his teens, by which time Narkle was unable to connect with her. As the character 'Geoffrey’ tells the audience in King Hit :
“When Mum came to visit me, I went into shock. All the years that I had hoped we could live together as a family again had turned to anger and resentment. There was only one door separating me from my mother’s arms and I wanted to open it, but I couldn’t.” (2007 pg 105).
During the late 1960s, after he had left Palatine Training Centre, Narkle travelled within Western Australia as part of George Stewart’s boxing troupe – he was known as 'Barker Bulldog’. Eventually he returned to Narrogin and reconciled with his mother. Bella was an artist and Narkle was very much inspired by her work. In 1977 the two exhibited together in a show at Waterman’s Restaurant in Mount Barker, Western Australia. Narkle’s love of sketching had emerged when he was a child; when he was thirteen he won first prize for a drawing he entered at the Narrogin Agricultural Show. As an adult, Narkle continued to create pencil drawings, but also worked with oil and water-based paints. While he would go on to be creative for the rest of his life, it was during the 1980s that he produced most of his work (Glenys Narkle, pers. comm. 2009). In 1985, Narkle was awarded the Western Australian NAIDOC Aboriginal Artist of the Year Award, and in 1986 he organised the exhibition 'Revival of the Lost Nyungar’ in Albany.
In the early 1970s, Narkle met Glenys Eades and the two were married in 1979 in Albany. They raised four children of their own, and also parented four foster children. Narkle was a devoted husband and father and refused to allow Glenys to work, supporting the family by working across a range of jobs. They spent the early years of their marriage in Albany, where Narkle worked as a labourer, as a youth worker with the Police Citizens Youth Club, as a coordinator with the Southern Aboriginal Corporation, and for a short time in Albany Regional Prison. The family left Albany in 1990 to study at the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship Bible College in Perth. Geoffrey studied for two years at the college and spent a few years travelling to different parts of Western Australia, during which he pastored for the Church in Kununurra and did ministry work in the Kimberleys. In the late 1980s Narkle became a pastor at the Aboriginal Evangelic Church in Balga, Perth, a position he held until the day he died.
From his first days pastoring at the Balga Church, Narkle’s life thereafter revolved around the health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth, both in a professional capacity and as something he was dedicated to in his private life. As Glenys described, Narkle was a source of advice and support for many Indigenous youth in need, and would go to great lengths to support them (pers. comm., 2009). He went on to minister the Young Adults Ministry in Perth and became involved with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company. Among the many projects with which he was involved at Yirra Yaakin was the CLAIMIN’ project, for which he was the supervising artist. The CLAIMIN’ project worked with communities to create painted banners and tabletops illustrating local flora and fauna that could then be used for community functions and events. King Hit was performed at the Dolphin Theatre, Nedlands, in 1997, and published in the Currency Press collection ' Contemporary Indigenous Plays’ in 2007.
Geoffrey Narkle passed away in 2005.
- Writers:
- Fisher, Laura
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
