Poor Souls

The émigré ship Cataraqui was wrecked on the west coast of King Island in 1845.

400 lives were lost, making it Australia’s worst civil maritime disaster.

The 175th anniversary of the wrecking of the Cataraqui was commemorated at the King Island Cultural Centre in March 2021, (delayed because of Covid). I was honoured to be part of the exhibition ‘Poor Souls’ with these artworks.

All works available for purchase unless marked as sold.

After the terror and turmoil of the shipwreck, the victim’s souls are released into the sea’s watery peace. Floating free, liberated from earthly burdens, they begin their journey to the afterlife.

In Greek mythology, this journey necessitates the crossing of the underworld River Lethe, which separates the present from the past. During this crossing the memories from a person’s life are drained into the flowing waters, for the dead have no need of their memories.

The memories in this ‘River of Forgetfulness’ are not destroyed, however, but flow into another body of water, Mnemosyne, the ‘Pool of Memory’, which becomes a reservoir for all the memories and wisdom from accumulated lived lives, and therefore the totality of human history and experience. Under certain circumstances, such as intuition, dreams or altered states, this reservoir can be accessed by the still living as a source of wisdom or inspiration, thus providing a means for the past to continuously enrich the present.

Many other world mythologies also describe a journey to the next world which involves traversing a body of water. Water is an almost universal symbol of cleansing, renewal, transformation and rebirth.