William Ricketts (1898-1993) was an Australian potter and sculptor of the arts and crafts movement.
Born in Richmond, Victoria in 1898, William settled permanently in Mount Dandenong, Victoria in 1934. Although not trained as a potter and never technically superior (his works large and small frequently exhibit cracking) the power of his vision of a modern Australia which embraces the Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the natural world has assured his place in the public favour. His major works include the "Dromana" in the Seawinds Garden, Arthurs Seat, Victoria, and "Gun Brute", William Ricketts Sanctuary, Mt Dandenong, Victoria. Many smaller works are in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Photographic records of his sculptures, particularly those from the sanctuaries of Pitchi Ritchi and Mt. Dandenong which have been vandalized, are held in the archives of Australia's libraries. William, never rich, supported himself through commissioned sales of his art and made pieces as gifts. These signed original small pieces are increasingly sought after for private collection
From 1949 - 1960 he made frequent trips into Central Australia to live with Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte Aboriginal people whose traditions and culture inspired his sculpture. He was not an Aboriginal by blood but considered himself adopted by Pitjantjatjara nation. He left behind many of his central Australian works at Pitchi Ritchi near Alice Springs - a bird sanctuary run by his friend Leo Corbet - as he considered the lansdscape integral to these sculptures.
From 1912 to 1920 William developed skills in playing violin, crafting jewelry and clay modelling. In 1934 he started his major artistic work - creating the sculpture park now named William Ricketts Sanctuary. He worked on this project until his death in 1993. In 1970 he went to India. He spent two years there, mostly at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram spiritual center in Pondicherry, developing spiritual empathy with Indian people and knowledge of their philosophy.
The main work of William Ricketts is the sculpture park that he named Potter's sanctuary, but is now.
There are few white men who have presented the aboriginal culture better than Victorian sculptor William Ricketts. William Ricketts devoted his life as protector and spokesman for the Australian bush. As it was his life’s work to enlighten the world, through the power of his hands. To the unlocked secrets of the Australian Bush, and preserve the inner most sanctuary of the Australian Aboriginal and their Dreaming.
I have chosen William rickets as my guide in bringing you Australian aboriginal culture. To introduce William rickets I introduce to you his Aboriginal brother Atirantuka .
The winged figure, an elder of the Aranda tribe, speaks.
The most brutal crime committed against the Australian bush at the hands of the white fellow is the burning of the holy forests and the destruction of the native animals that live in them.
The fire that burned the forests has burned deep into the soul of my brother, whom I Atratuka, have known, from the Alchera. It was from the centre of the burning of the holy forest that my brother received the law of every tribe, including the Victorian tribes who suffered so greatly when the white man came.
The tribal law is symbolized by fire-suffering. Suffering is the fire stick in my brother’s hand.
White fellow, my people regard even desert places as holy. Before you can reach the heaven spoken of by your churches, you must find heaven in your own land, in the beautiful spectacle of life as it still exists in the Australian bush.
When you as a white Australian, can learn to feel at one with the loveliness of our land, you will not want to destroy or pervert the loveliness as you do when you deprive beautiful birds of their rightful freedom by putting them in cages.
As a nation you are in different to the burning and killing that destroy the bush.
Do you understand that in the end you are creating weapons that will shoot at freedom itself? My brother was given great spiritual power when he received the law of every tribe, and he will use that power in defense of the Australian bush, now being swept away in this last onslaught of the white man’s indifference and folly.
A pure imagination, born to man in a state of true freedom, and wrought in fire, is to be desired above all things. Therein lay the sources of health, beauty, great love, and of wonder and freedom themselves. The life of man is one with these things. Anything that separates man from them can only be evil, which you are told to resist
Does it mean anything to you, that my brother is determined to fight this evil of mans separation from beauty, freedom and love? Will you not help him in is fight?
All living things every where are forever one with us.”
http://member.melbpc.org.au/~grjallen/ricketts/
rick2b.htm
Earth Mother by William Ricketts
Earthly Mother Primal, Pure, Perfect
Wholeness of life-love giving of itself
Ever flowing-all in all
Follow her light from the visible
To the invisible within your innermost self
Transcends the physical eye It is then the body becomes suffused
With a light love and beauty
To be the Divine Spring within us
The living waters flowing all outwards upon all earth life
Become this law then your body given you
By your Earthly Mother will never know disease nor death.
Life is love. All you to all me, for being part of nature we are brothers to the birds and trees. Will you then join us in the sacredness of beauty, because at our highest we are part of the beauty of the world, we know we are part of its Creator and designer and, so in this expression of our minds and hearts and hands we give back to God what emanates from God?
Each one of us is a transformer of Divine Power, and when love finds form in sculpture, and music we are richly blessed because through such we can reach God.
The only way to retain love for one self is to give it abundantly to others, so your brother William Ricketts hopes you will share and enjoy all these things with me. Let this be our prayer: May we consecrate the Australian bush and, speak both for and of it as, poems of God. May the power of abundant living be so great in us and our given imagination so quickened that, having read this message we become crusaders in the supreme quest of true beauty.
Man is nature’s masterpiece; therefore claim your inheritance by giving her the co-operation you owe.
Just up the road from the Cuckoo is a very special place. A fern forest inundated with mosses and small flowering plants riddled with trickling streams and wildlife, this sanctuary is the home of William Rickets work.
Situated in the Dandenongs in a ferny glade, William Ricketts Sanctuary is a place of beauty and tranquility, due both to the natural setting and the mystical sculptures half hidden among ferns along the pathways. It is a place for quiet reflection and for contemplation of the essence of the vision of William Ricketts. Many travel across the world to visit this place time and time again..
Australia Crucified
