Returning Home

A talented Paarkintji and Ngiyaampa artist hopes her digital painting showcased at Broken Hill Service NSW Centre will bring happiness and help the community feel a sense of belonging and connection to Country.  

29-year-old Bridget Marlowe’s artwork ‘Returning Home’ printed on canvas tells a story of a 12-hour journey home from Western Sydney on Dharawal Country to Menindee on Paarkintji Country, contrasting the bright lights, noisy roads and fast-paced city life to the open, red dirt roads, blue skies, starry nights and peaceful country town life.  

The artwork captures the different landscapes, buildings and diverse cultures in the towns while on the drive home, while also capturing the flora and fauna seen along the roads, which reminds Ms Marlowe of her childhood.

The Service NSW Aboriginal Artwork Initiative aims to strengthen engagement with and acknowledgement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as make Service NSW Centres more welcoming and an inclusive environment for all people.

Broken Hill is the ninth centre across the State to participate in the initiative and engage with their local Aboriginal community to display a local Aboriginal artist’s work.  

Team members from Broken Hill Service NSW Centre work closely with local community groups such as 123 Community Hub and the Broken Hill Community Working Group to increase awareness of government services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through community events and continue to prioritise their community engagement strategy.  

Service NSW also offers an Aboriginal Traineeship Program and coordinates with a group training organisation to provide an employment pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Broken Hill Service NSW Centre Manager Lauri Fettell PSM said:

"Thank you to Bridget for her incredible artwork that will help the community feel connected and welcomed as soon as they come into the Service NSW Centre and for sharing the stories and cultures of the Paarkintji and Ngiyaampa peoples."  

"Our teams strive to ensure our Service Centres are inclusive and accessible of all our communities and the Aboriginal Artwork Initiative is one way we want to show respect and recognition of cultures and maintain a sense of belonging and place of welcome for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples."

"We look forward to customers visiting the centre, taking a moment to enjoy Bridget’s piece, reflect upon the beautiful land that we live on, and feel the connection to the community like Bridget does."

Artist Bridget Marlowe said:

"I am extremely excited that my artwork is going to be displayed in the Service NSW Centre and I hope the bright and different colours bring people happiness and that people enjoy the story behind it from my childhood, bringing that feeling of belonging and connection to Country."

"The orange, red and black dots represent Sturt’s Desert Peas, the orange, blue and purple dots are the thousands of trees I would see driving, the curves and hills represent the hours I travelled home and the lines inside the hills express the people living within the towns I drove by."

"I have always enjoyed art. I have family members who are artists and as a child I would always do little drawings on pieces of paper or anything that I could find like tissue boxes or the back of note pads."

"I only started my digital art this year as I enjoy it more than painting on canvas. It started as just mucking around but then I really got into the digital paintings when I needed to relax and lose track of time at night when I could not sleep."