Geckos

Laurel Nannup is a significant contributor to Noongar culture and in 2017 she was commissioned to create First Contact, a five-metre tall polished aluminium sculpture located at William Street Landing, Elizabeth Quay foreshore.

With a strong connection to the site of Chevron Australia’s headquarters, it’s a privilege to represent Nannup with Geckos, an early print by this respected Noongar Elder and acclaimed artist. She completed this work whilst studying Fine Arts at Curtin University.

From the artist’s first-hand account, Nannup’s father gave her the animal totem of the ‘Gecko’ when she was a young child. She first used the gecko design for the University’s ‘Mundjah Festival’ symbolising (in the form of geckos) the coming together of people from all different backgrounds and cultures.

This specific work was chosen to also reflect Chevron’s commitment to these shared values.

Laurel Nannup
Binjareb/Pinjarup Noongar Peoples
Born Carrolup, Western Australia
Lives and works Boorloo | Perth

Born in 1943 in the Carrolup mission school near Katanning in Western Australia, Laurel Nannup is a member of the Stolen Generation. Nannup has Binjareb/Pinjarup ancestry and is a highly respected Noongar artist, whose works are primarily woodcut prints and etchings depicting scenes of her childhood. As a child, Nannup grew up in the bush around Pinjarra until she was taken at eight from her family to live at the Wandering Mission until the age of 16. She discovered her passion for drawing and design later in life, studying Fine Arts Arts University as a mature age student in her 50s.

Her art is represented in many of Australia's major galleries including the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia, Perth, and abroad at the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal in The Netherlands. In 2017 she was commissioned to create First Contact, a five-metre-tall polished aluminium sculpture located at William Street Landing, Elizabeth Quay foreshore. This sculpture evolved from a small print by the artist and was inspired by the Noongar people’s first visions of European settlers, whose distant sailing ships looked like floating birds bearing the white-faced spirits of their ancestors.