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Murra Wolka Story - "About Us Mob" Joe Senior Story
Joe Skeen was a little boy when his parents were removed from their traditional homelands and sent to the Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve in North Queensland. In the early 1940`s they were moved again to Cherbourg in South East Queensland.
Joe would often accompany his father when he was hired out to local farmers to work, mostly at cane cutting. It was then that his father taught him how to identify black wattle roots and how to fashion those roots into boomerangs. Among the many people that bought his fathers boomerangs were American servicemen. When he was 21 Joe returned to Cherbourg to visit his siblings and he saw an opportunity to make a living from the work and he started selling boomerangs to farmers before moving to Brisbane in 1960. This was around the same time that the Government-owned curio shop that was to become Queensland Aboriginal Creations opened, which he became a major supplier. | ||
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Joe Junior Story
My earliest memories are of my dad and mum sitting around the kitchen table with the paints out painting boomerangs. In our house everything that was on the walls and displayed was Aboriginal. When other kids came home from school they played. I not only played but also had to make boomerangs with Dad and my brothers. Every morning before I went to school, I went down to the back shed in Logan and said goodbye to dad who was working on the dangerous looking bandsaw without any safety guards.
In 1990 I set out to start my own business following in the steps of my father, his father and his father. Murra Wolka Creations (which means Hand Painted) was born. As a company, we presently are one of the largest supplier to various companies not only Nationally but Internationally. We have had the added privilege of exhibiting and selling at two separate times in Milan, Italy and representing Australian indigenous business in cooperation with Austrade. Our mission statement is: To create sustainable employment for Aboriginal families. This is the satisfaction that makes it all worthwhile |
