Artists

owner/business partner

Deborah Newenham-Coertse (Woods)

Deborah was born in Fremantle WA. Her aboriginal ancestry is from her mother’s side, known as the “Woods” family from Gnowangerup WA. The Woods are Noongars from the South West of WA and originated from the Bibbulman people. Her dad is from Holland, he came out to Australia with his mother and brother after World War II.

Deb grew up in Coolbellup where she attended her early years of schooling. When she joined the workforce, she found herself in Queensland where she spent 17+ years before returning home. She began painting in 1994, and this she did as a hobby for the next few years. There became a time that Deborah found the market was screaming for aboriginal art products for the tourist markets and this is when she registered her business YIRRA – KURL, which in Noongar means “to go up”. She then with the help of her family – designed, manufactured and wholesaled indigenous souvenirs to the tourist markets nationally and internationally. After 8 years of running the business, Deb chose to take the back seat and spend more time painting canvases and licensing her artworks to manufacturers, concentrating on commissioned artworks etc. Some of Deb’s key achievements;

Winner of the 2015 Examiner Newspaper Business Awards for Business Leader
Two year fellowship grant through the Australian Arts Council
Nominated Telstra Business Woman of the Year
Category winner Printing Industry Craftsmanship Awards (PICA)
Articles about YirraKurl published in SCOOP magazine, Australian Indigenous Art News and Post Magazine
Awarded an international trade contract through AUSTRADE
Subject of a case study “Indigenous Enterprise”

ARTIST

Melissa Spillman (Woods)

Melissa’s indigenous heritage comes from her Nanna’s side (Bernice Woods) from Gnowangerup, WA. Melissa is the daughter of Aboriginal Artist Deborah Newenham and was born in Nambour in 1987. Melissa was raised in Queensland before moving to Perth at the age of 10.

Mel’s first found passion was soccer and has been playing since the age of 6yrs. Soccer has always been a large part of her life, playing soccer at high school for John Curtin Soccer Excellence Program, representing the school in a tournament in Singapore in 2000 and representing WA in the state school girls competition in Coffs Harbour in 2002. In 2003 Mel was selected to be apart of the National Training Squad (NTC) and was training with the W-League Perth Glory but was overcome with injuries and could no longer compete at this level.

Mel left school at the end of year 10 to help her Mum with her aboriginal art business which developed significantly in a short period of time. Aboriginal art was always around Mel from a young age as her Nanna, Mother and Aunty were all painting.

In 2008 Mel really found her passion and desire for painting when she completed a canvas painting for a colleague, who was that taken by the artwork, he was overcome with tears. Challenging herself, Mel’s artwork has developed vastly over the years as she has been pushing herself to try new things – AFL Footballs, Boxing Boots, Artefacts, Mini Orb.

In 2018 Mel worked with Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University in collaboration with a Wood Sculptor to create designs (representing 2 Noongar regions) on wood carvings, installed at Joondalup ECU. Mel was also invited to be a part of the “Peter Farmer Jr and the Young Aboriginal Artist Collective” exhibiting her paintings.

Artist

Benjamin Goebel (Woods)

Benjamin Goebel is the 5th child of Aboriginal Artist Deborah Newenham-Coertse born in Gympie in 1994. Bens aboriginal family go by the name ‘Woods’ and are from Gnowangerup which is in the South West of Western Australia.

Ben followed in his sister (Melissa’s) foot steps playing soccer. He was selected into the John Curtin Soccer Excellence Program and was picked to attend Brazil’s Desportivo Youth Football Academy, where he boarded at the academy with other players from around the world for 12months.

In 2013 Ben was playing in the premier league for Cockburn City Soccer Club where he suffered a serious Achilles injury and had decided to “hang the boots up”.

Ben was always interested in sketching/drawing as a child, having many scrapbooks with all types of sketches. Ben was inspired to pick up the paintbrush, as many of his family had done. Ben combined his sketching and aboriginal dot art, furthering his own technique and style.

In 2018 Ben was invited to be a part of the “Peter Farmer Jr and the Young Aboriginal Artist Collective” where he exhibited 4 of his paintings. Ben received a lot of great feedback regarding his artwork and had decided that he wanted to keep painting and challenging himself to new materials and techniques.

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