Vatican Museums

Utilizing a distinctly Aboriginal painting style, the artist has adopted concentric circles with connecting pathways to represent the Pilgrimage from Australia to the Vatican in 2010 for the canonization of Australia’s first Saint, Sister Mary McKillop.
Yvonne O’Neill is a Murri artist from Goodooga in northern New South Wales and Head of Indigenous Education at St Joseph’s Nudgee College in Brisbane. In 2010 she was commissioned by the Australian Catholic University to paint the story of the Australians who travelled to Rome to witness the canonization of Sister Mary McKillop.
In the iconography of the painting, the central circle at the top depicts the Vatican with the Australian Catholic University on the left and St Joseph’s Nudgee College on the right. The thick black lines represent the journey of the University and Nudgee College. The seven smaller circles below, each with journey lines, represent the Australian States and Territories coming together in the Vatican for this event.