Art taken to the bank

Mr Crase had his artwork placed on St George Bank ATMs around Australia as part of NAIDOC Week. 

His painting, ‘My Brother’s Journey’, depicts the journey of friend Jason McColl, an Aboriginal cadet at St George Bank, who is searching for his heritage. 

“His story is about him going down with his ideas to St George and travelling back through with his tribe,” Mr Crase said. 

“It is important because his grandmother is from the Stolen Generation and he has gone back to Tennant Creek to find his family.”

When explaining the artwork, Mr Crase said the big and small circles represented the deep and shallow water and the white circles surrounding them show the waves washing up to the shore. 

Australia is in the centre of the painting and shows tracks from Sydney to Tennant Creek, were Mr McColl’s tribe is from. 

The artwork also features a kangaroo, boomerang and male and female members of a tribe. 

“It’s about him going to uni, Uluru and then back to Tennant Creek,” Mr Crase said. 

Mr Crase said he was over the moon to be given the opportunity to paint Mr McColl’s journey and shocked when he was told it would be the base of a design for an ATM decoration to celebrate NAIDOC Week. 

“He (Mr McColl) rang me and said I want to give back to St George for everything they have given me, I want you to paint my story to give to them,” Mr Crase explained. 

“They ended up buying it off me and using for ATM designs.

“It is the first time an indigenous intern’s story has been painted by an indigenous artist and displayed on ATMs for NAIDOC Week.”

The artwork is on two ATMs in Sydney, one in Cairns, one in Dubbo and also along escalators in the company’s headquarters. 

Mr Crase is hoping that his artwork will now be displayed on Batemans Bay’s St George Bank ATM. 

“It is important to me to have something so significant put up on ATMs and elevators in recognition of NAIDOC Week,” Mr Crase said.