Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land was the first major retrospective exhibition celebrating the work and life of Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, and was presented by Cairns Art Gallery in 2018, in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).

This exhibition forms part of the Cairns Art Gallery online First Nations Research Archive developed as part of the Gallery’s online Legacy Archive produced to celebrate the Gallery’s 30th anniversary.

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land brought together seventy works from major institutions and private lenders across Australia, including barks, paintings, ceremonial and historical objects, draft illustrations from the Rainbow Serpent children’s book and three story-book films: The Rainbow Serpent (1975), The Giant Devil Dingo (1977) and The Quinkans (1982).

In the supporting publication, Jennifer Isaacs AM stated that, ‘Roughsey, also known as Goobalathaldin, was a Lardil artist from Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. While his artistic practice had its origins in traditional bark painting, he later transitioned into modern paintings in oil and acrylic and became well known for his illustrated children’s books, winning the Children’s Book of the Year award twice during the late 1970s.’                                                                                               

Roughsey was born in 1920 on Mornington Island and spent his early years growing up on the island and living the traditional way. His tribal name, Goobalathaldin, means ‘the ocean, dancing’, or a rough sea. Throughout his life Roughsey travelled extensively on the mainland, spending several years in Cairns and exploring Cape York with fellow artists Ray Crooke and Percy Trezise. In 2014 the Gallery staged the exhibition Hells Gate, which presented new research about the travels and works of Dick Roughsey, Percy Trezise and Ray Crooke.

As well as being a very gifted artist who captured the beauty, harshness, isolation and intimacy of the Australian outback in Far North Queensland, Roughsey was a traveller between many worlds – black and white, mission and city, urban and village – and through the spiritual worlds of other tribal groups. Roughsey died in 1985.

Stories of this Land included four works from the Gallery’s Collection, as well as a small portrait of Roughsey by Ray Crooke, in the Gallery Collection.

GOOBALATHALDIN DICK ROUGHSEY STORIES OF THIS LAND is a collaboration between Cairns Art Gallery and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia