Conversations in The Gallery: with a Gumbaynggirr, Guringai and Worimi Elder, Uncle Allan Phillips

Artist Uncle Allan Phillips and historian Jade Symons sit down for an interview, May 2026 in The Gallery, Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance to speak about the current exhibition; Uncle Allan Phillips Solo Exhibition

By Jade Symons, Community Historian & Storytelling

Uncle Allan has a certain, je ne sais quoi. There’s a softness, an unapologetic and self assurance to his being. A long conversation with Uncle Allan feels like only a moment. His words hold wisdom and the resilience of his character. Speaking with Uncle Allan, I have an undoubted belief that the supernatural is present; it is clear, throughout his life, the spirits have guided him and Country has held him. Uncle Allan can read the Land, its movements and its inhabitants in a way that my Western mindset cannot fathom.
 

It was a challenge to capture the nuances of his thought and cheek of his character; however, walking the quiet gallery as he teaches me the stories of his art, and his preference for chicken Smiths Chips, I am left deeply enriched and connected to the world around me.

Uncle Allan Phillips is an Elder of Gumbaynggirr, Guringai, Worimi and of Irish descent, from Dorrigo. He sits as an Elder for the Gnibi College for Southern Cross University, is the Founder and Director of Garlungun Girrwaa Yuludarla – The OneMob Dreaming Foundation.

His childhood and earlier life was impacted by challenges, traumas and relocation. In describing his father he says, ‘my dad was a beautiful, beautiful man with a heart for anybody. But in those days, the trauma that he was carrying, the family was carrying’ meant his family became separated, and Allan was relocated to Sydney. During this time, rugby league carried Uncle Allan through his youth. However, in adulthood Uncle Allan experienced what he calls a ‘shattering’. And the only way to understand himself and his life was to track back through his life. As a Gumbaynggirr man, he came home, back to Country to connect and heal.

I asked Allan how art came into his life; ‘I know it sounds really corny, but I was going out with a lady and it was her 40th birthday. And I thought, I’ve only got $60 but I want to give her something nice for her birthday. And the Old People said, why don’t you paint us some pictures? And I thought, I haven’t done anything like that since, well, kindergarten’ and Uncle Allan hasn’t put down the paint brush since. 

His art allows him to learn through his own trials and tribulations and reflect it back. Yet, it is art that connects him to his Elders. Uncle Allan speaks often of his Ancestors and how they have shaped his life, and much of the wisdom and lessons he shares with me have been passed down to him by the Old People.

‘Every time I’ve tried to take artistic design and control of a piece, the artwork stops talking to me. The more I painted, the more I was connecting, not only to myself, but to the Old People. You know, because our understanding, our spirituality and our culture, the spirit world is happening exactly the same as our human world. And there’s both positive, negative, good, bad, light, dark, that whole thing. You’ve just got to learn who to listen to’.

This connection to Ancestors extends not only to Indigenous Australia but North America too. Uncle Allan has spent much of his recent life in Turtle Island (North America), living and connecting with the Indigenous communities there. A friend from Canada invited him to visit after a devastating event. Any long time local to our area will remember that heartbreaking truck accident in Urunga. Overnight, a semi trailer ran through the front bedroom of a home and killed a small boy. I remember it was the school holidays, stinking hot and just after my brother’s birthday. Its impact permeated through the small town and mere meters from the crash, Uncle Allan was asleep in the house next door. 

Of his time on Turtle Island, he recalls serendipitous moments of connection, attending powwows and dancing the Sundance. He tells me the story of following an Eagle to the .. People …… of Sioux Chiefs personally calling him onto stage at the International Indigenous Leadership Gathering where Indigenous to receive a ceremonial drumming. Listening to these stories, it’s hard not to believe that there’s a magical interconnectedness between us all. 

It is part of Uncle’s nature to make community wherever he may be. In Canada he says;

‘I was part of the community there. So much so, I’d be walking down the street, and I hadn’t been there since the last visit. And people would go, hey, black fella, you’re back home (Squarmish)’.

More than the connection, Uncle Allan says the learnings from the community there helped him heal and helped him understand his own place within history and relation. He learned the similarities of colonial history, their own story of displacement and living on reservations; however, most critically he saw the wisdom of Indigenous knowledge and Intelligence Systems was universal; ‘this knowledge guided me to a deeper understanding that we are all one. We’ve been given different places in the world to look after by the Creator’

At the Exhibition Opening, Uncle Allan receives a Samoan dance of thanks from an Elder, people stream in and out all evening, hugging and thanking Uncle for his. It is clear, Uncle Allan is deeply loved by the community around him. The understanding he has of life around him is nuanced and he has faith in the sublime. Thankyou Uncle. 

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Selected Artworks from the Uncle Allan Phillips Solo Exhibition

Half a Degree

‘The four colours are the American medicine wheel; Black fellow, red fellow, white fellow, yellow fellow, on the green of earth, surrounded and connected by the gold of the creator, held by the Creator.

The blue is our air and water, the creator of purple dots, which is the universe. But if you stand back… It’s off centre and out of balance. But even though the squares and the lines, upwards and sideways, are perfect, straight up and down, sideways, straight, but it’s a little bit off to one side. The centre circles are just off centre.

But what about it’s only half a degree for balance, half a degree of effort, half a degree of thought, half a degree of being? Because when you look at it half a degree, it looks so tiny. But if you’d send those two lines out, it gets larger. And bigger and bigger.

It only takes half a degree’’.

The Mothers

“The Original Mothers of the Dreaming Story; the Mother and her Four Daughters who went on to become the black tribe, the white tribe, the yellow tribe and the red tribe. The child represents them all, our One Mob”.