Sadiki Kamundele's art out of Africa supported in Mount Gambier and repaid with the city's Great Wall of Cultures
Sadiki Kamundele with his sculptures in limestone from South Australia's southeast and working on the Great Wall of Cultures mural in Mount Gambier.
Images by Gabrielle Duykers and Anelia Blackie.
Art skills honed in a Zambian refugee camp by Sadiki Kamundele, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, began making a strong impression on the South Australian southeast city of Mount Gamier from his arrival in 2015.
A skilled sculptor and painter, inspired by traditional and modern African styles, Kamundele painted murals for Mount Gambier schools, shop fronts and Stobie poles, and worked alongside artist Jeremy Ievins to create the $50,000 Great Wall of Cultures Mural, sponsored by the migrant resource centre, at the Mount Gambier railway yards.
Loving painting from schooldays in the Congo, Kamundele was never able to find or afford a teacher and resources to develop his drawing skills. Seeing a large mural being painted also fascinated him.
Amid conflict in the Congo, Kamundele and his family fled on foot to the Mehaba refugee settlement in neighbouring Zambia in 2003 – for the next 13 years. Kamundele found purpose amid that uncertainty though FORGE (Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment) who visited the site regularly and harnessed his natural talent to do murals for the camp’s schools and hospitals with messages about the environment and stopping violence. He also picked up the art of wood carving after watching others practise the craft.
During later years in the camp, he began visiting Lusaka in Zambia and found another artist from the Congo who employed him as a freelance artist. Based more than 700 kilometres from the Mehaba refugee camp, he lived with friends when he could find work, and returned to the camp when there was none. This continued for years before Kamundele, his wife, and three children were selected to begin the resettlement and move to Australia in 2015.
His first year in Mount Gambier was spent at the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) adult migrant English programme and working in Coonawarra vineyards, a meat processing plant, milking cows on dairy farms, before securing a full-time job in a timber mill. Staff at the migrant resource centre quickly learned of his many talents and helped build his reputation through community art opportunities. His first project was for a local radio station, painting their mobile caravan, used for live broadcasts at public events.
A special friendship formed between Kamundele and 96-year-old author Kelvin Smibert, who took him to the local men’s shed. Smibert brought Swahili-to-English translation books to the shed each week and Kamundele grew increasingly confident in his conversation. The men’s shed introduced him to sculpting with limestone and Australian woods, initially challenging as they were softer than the African woods. At the men’s shed, Smibert also made traditional African chisel that Kamundele preferred.
Kamundele used his improved sculpting skills to create a collection of wood and limestone pieces for an exhibition at the Riddoch Art Gallery in 2018. He sold every piece. His work predominantly features portrayals of the human form and native animals depicted in wood carvings, limestone sculptures and portraits.