The new Pope, Leo XIV is the lucky recipient of a small Aboriginal artwork by the Ngarrindjeri artist, Amanda Westley, or Conway-Jones as she identified at a sell-out exhibition in Fremantle in 2018. Her artwork, titled ‘Raukkan (Meeting Place)’ was priced by one South Australian gallery at $1,120. A significantly larger version in different colours, but very similar patterning and titled ‘Palun (Travelling and Journeying)’, was priced at $1750 in Adelaide’s Art Images Gallery – and sold. Westley seems to sell out in Canberra as well.

For, at the Ghost Gallery in the ACT, she was quoted as saying, “My paintings evoke a style of contemporary Aboriginal dot art. By creating pieces that are inspiring they will brighten people’s day with my choice of colours”.

Lucky Leo!

But I have to ask how this work was selected. For the Vatican holds a significant collection of old First Nations artworks, and may well recognise that the Pope has not been given a remarkable canvas by a master artist. Was the Treasurer feeling mean after all the promised handouts that won the election? Was the PM’s plane too full of batik shirts from Indonesia? Or was it a last minute decision to pop round the corner to the Ghost Gallery?

Surely the first American Pope was worth something closer to US$60,000 for a glorious Tim Leura ‘Rock Wallaby Dreaming at Ngunyunpa‘, which is still available as unsold last night at Sotheby’s auction in NY?

Apologies to Amanda Westley, who is undoubtedly a popular artist and rightly asserts, “I am a Ngarrindjeri woman and artist, born in Victor Harbor, South Australia in 1985. My totems are the whale, pelican and black swan. My father was a boat builder, so the water and the ocean have always been a big part of my life. My grandmother is the youngest of fourteen kids. I think the youngest four were taken. Mum has shown me letters in this book that we have of her father writing to try to get the kids back. It says in the letters that he will pay a certain amount out of his monthly salary to get his children back. My Grandma and her sister are now living back in Goolwa, at the mouth of the Murray River. The family is reunited and they’re all living just down the road, which is awesome”.

“My painting style is dot work and the bright colours from my coastal hometown and the ocean are represented through my paintings. I have been painting from a very young age and my style is contemporary Aboriginal dot art. My paintings represent Country, for Aboriginal people land has a spiritual and cultural connection and is so important to our identity and way of life. With my painting I have used a combination of pinks, yellows, blues, greens and oranges to represent how I see my Ngarrindjeri Country. My family is one of the oldest Aboriginal families here on the south coast so this land I call home has been a part of my family for a very long time”.

Westley posted a short video to her Instagram followers revealing she had “no idea” her painting would be selected as a gift for the new Pope. “My phone is blowing up and my emails, it’s insane,” she began; “I had no idea this was happening”. She had initially believed the news was “AI generated or a joke”.

“But I’m super excited. I think it hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m extremely proud, but I’m really proud for Ngarrindjeri. It could have been any art from anywhere in Australia, and it’s Ngarrindjeri art that was given as a gift and that makes me really proud.”