Yondee Shane Hansen

Noongar artist Yondee Shane Hansen was born in the south-west of Western Australia in 1964, at Dumbleyung, 270 km south of Perth. Although he spent his early years around Dumbleyung and Narrogin Yondee later grew up mainly around the Swan River near Guildford on the outskirts of Perth. The story of his early life and his attraction to painting gives a strong idea of how his personal life story feeds into his role as an Aboriginal artist.

Yondee Shane Hansen was taught about hunting and shown sand drawings by his father. Around the age of ten he would travel and visit his aunties on the Swan River and would collect paper bark to help them in their art work. It was here that he started to learn about art from his older relatives who are known for their painting on paper- bark. Yondee Shane Hansen remembers from this time:
“The bark had been burnt and then soaked. We would float it in the river, then the old people would grab it, put it in hessian bags, take it up the hill and dry it out for a couple of days. They’d use flour and water glue and charcoal for paint.

He started painting with house paints that they found on the rubbish tip. He started drawing with charcoal, drawing on the light grey logs that had no bark. Yondee says "I love the simplicity of black and white, the strength. The black is fire, the white is the tree. From childhood, that’s why I often paint black and white paintings"