Cottoning On

In 1961, frustrated with taxes and regulations in the United States, cotton growers Paul Kahl and Frank Hadley migrated with their families to Wee Waa on a hunch. Their arrival proved unexpectedly challenging for all concerned, the locals were wary of the pace and practices of the blow-ins, and the Americans struggled to get to […]

Read More…

A Long Time Coming

The crowning of cotton as king in the Namoi is widely credited to two Americans who arrived in the 1960s, but cotton was first discussed as a crop with potential forty years earlier. In 1921, the Imperial Cotton Committee investigated the land around the Namoi River. When nothing resulted following the visit, there were calls […]

Read More…

The River People’s Lament

Artist and activist Badger Bates is a Barkandji elder from Wilcannia near the Barka (Darling) River in far western New South Wales. His people are river people and, as a result, much of his art focuses on the Barka and the people and animals that are dependent on its flow. Badger was born in 1947 […]

Read More…