COVER STORY - "Art for justice's sake."
By Tracey Edstein.

Traditionally St Dominic is credited with proclaiming nine ways of praying. For Sr Sheila Flynn OP, there are ten ways… the tenth
is through myriad forms of art. Sheila is an English Dominican who became an artist after encountering the great works of art in
Rome in 1988. She was awakened to the potential of art by Australian Christian Brother Stanis Maguire and knew almost immediately “that this could be good news”.

Fast forward to Newcastle, July 2005, and art is indeed ‘good news’. A long journey – physically and spiritually – brought Sheila to the
diocese to work with senior art students from diocesan schools. During the holidays, 15 students from St Clare’s Taree, St Mary’s Maitland and St Francis Xavier’s Hamilton gathered for a week long workshop to raise their awareness of ‘the big picture’ in terms of social justice. They did this by creating a very big picture, with the theme of Faith, Fairness and Human Rights which will be seen in various locations around the diocese.

How did Sheila’s Roman holiday bring her to our diocese and also to Dominican schools throughout Australia? “Rome formed my artistic conscience” and so when Sheila was asked to work in South Africa, she studied Fine Art, majoring in printmaking and sculpture as well as art theory. Sheila has come to believe passionately in the unique ability of art to speak to the cognitive, spiritual,
perceptual, psychological and creative modes. Pre-liberation in 1994, “no black person had the right to art education”. Sheila was already involved in extra-curricular art activities and was delighted when art was accepted into the curriculum, but she recognised that there were few qualified teachers. Her proposal for a one year teacher training programme in Visual Arts for disadvantaged rural teachers was accepted and the gospel of art began to be proclaimed.

Moving forward a few years, Sheila could not have anticipated what good news her skills would be for displaced and marginalised women living outside Johannesburg. 2001 saw the inception of the Kopanang Women’s Group, comprising women from two historically divided communities, many of whom were forcibly removed to these areas in the 1970s and ‘80s. Many of the women are abandoned or widowed. Their children are growing up amid poverty and 80% unemployment, and all this against the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The Group utilises art in myriad ways, caring for the earth’s resources through recycling, and producing stationery, journals, wall hangings, altar cloths and church stoles. The wall hangings Sheila showed us were stunning!

The Dominican injunction is “To praise, to bless, to preach”. Sheila has not only fulfilled this in her own ministry, but has made it possible for women with seemingly unbearable burdens not only to support their children but to regain faith in themselves. Ironically, Sheila has found that in spite of all, they are profoundly faithfilled.

Sheila’s faith too was challenged by theirs; she was told that she had to believe that the people’s dreams would come true. She knew she had learned that lesson when, unable to afford a computer, she bought a mouse mat! Before long the computer materialised.
She tells the story of a family burying their child, the third to die. The father placed the boy’s sleeping mat in the grave before lowering the little coffin. The mother wept as she watched. Later, she was asked, “How can you believe in a good God when you have buried three children?’ The mother replied, “How can I not believe?”

Another dimension of art that is intrinsic to these South African women is music, and Sheila played for the students a song recorded in Johannesburg called Never Give Up. Its haunting refrain spoke of the spirit of a people for whom weddings as a cause for gatherings have given way to funerals. A chance encounter with Sheila’s work in Johannesburg saw Michael Elphick, Co-ordinator
of the Banner Project for the Catholic Schools Office, determine to engage her to work with Australian students. Wayne Tinsey, Director of Schools, was delighted that Sheila was able to visit the diocese. He said, “The project is not just about producing a piece of art, it’s about building a relationship between ourselves in the first world and those who live in the majority world. Hopefully our students will pick up on some of Sr Sheila’s passion for justice and in their turn become agents of positive change.”

The students embraced the opportunity to work with a professional artist and it was obvious, visiting St Francis Xavier’s College, host of the workshop, that they had become a community. Simone Holly, local artist and College art teacher, had asked them to bring “a writing pad, pen, pencil, rubber and a smile”. During the workshop, she said she had realised that “there is so much potential here
and so much energy, just wanting direction”. The workshop offered plenty of hands-on experience and tuition, but also collaborative
planning, discussions, creative brainstorming, music and prayer. Towards its conclusion, Amy Hill of St Mary’s Campus, Maitland, said, “I hope that the banner we’re making will help people to realise that they can make a difference.”

Since 2001, Sheila has been making a difference through the Kopanang Women’s Group. Those who see the mural will hopefully be inspired towards, if not art, then justice for justice’s sake. As Sarah Crichton of St Francis Xavier’s said, “This week has supported my previous beliefs that social justice can be achieved.”

You may like to visit www.kopanang.org

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