Vic Chapman PSM

Indigenous artist and educator Vic Chapman was born on 14 March 1932 at Currawillinghi Station, on Ballandool Creek near the town of Hebel on the NSW-Queensland border.

Vic was the first Aboriginal School Principal in Australia and retired in 1990 after 39 years of teaching. He was awarded the Public Service Medal (PSM) in 1991 for his contribution to Education; he is also a recipient of the 2001 Centenary of Federation Medal.

His first attempts at fashioning pieces from clay were made using the black mud found on the banks of a creek, a tributary of the Darling River. His recent works concentrate on ceramic bowls, platters and vases which often depict the dreaming stories of his people, and his childhood memories. He has exhibited at Project Contemporary Art Space, Wollongong, the Wollongong City Art Gallery, Sydney's Government House (In the Interest of Bennelong), and the Walkabout Gallery (Messages from the Fringe) in Leichhardt, Sydney.

In the late 1990s Vic was commissioned to design a public art mosaic depicting the Yaroma dreaming story of Figtree for the Wollongong City Council.