Elder Wing of Australian Art: Plain English Tour
Work 5 of 15

Theresa Walker and her sister Martha Berkeley came to South Australia in 1837.

The sisters were the first non-Aboriginal women artists in South Australia.

They had learned how to make art in England.

The sisters did many types of art.

They were skilled in making small pictures of people, also known as portraits.

Martha painted portraits.

Theresa made portraits out of wax.

The sisters’ art included important pictures of some of the first people who lived in Adelaide.

Two of Theresa’s best portraits are of a Kaurna Aboriginal man and woman.

She made the portraits from wax.

The Kaurna people’s names were Kertamaroo and Mocatta.

Kertamaroo was also known as Murlawirrapurka.

Theresa made more copies of these portraits.

One pair was shown at the Royal Academy in London.

Another was given to the wife of the governor.

Murlawirrapurka was a policeman.

He also helped German missionaries to understand Kaurna words.

Missionaries were people who spread the word of God.