Redfern Elder and culinary pioneer Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo OAM has become the first sitter in the National Portrait Gallery to be immortalised in etching, unveiled by Governor-General Sam Mostyn.
At 83, Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo OAM has fed royalty and inspired Michelin-starred chefs, yet her National Portrait Gallery portrait captures something far humbler: a cup of tea and biscuits.
The work by artist Dennis Golding — a former student at the Redfern school she helped establish — is the gallery's first etching, and it moved the Elder to tears.
It's putting us on the map as Indigenous people, that's how I see it.Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo OAM
The etching is the first of its kind in the gallery's collection; Aunty Beryl was reduced to tears at the reveal; and the Governor-General framed the humble cup of tea as a national act of ceremony and love.
The portrait honours decades of advocacy for native foods and vocational education that gave First Nations young people, Golding among them, a voice and a choice.
As Aunty Beryl approaches her 84th birthday, the portrait stands as a permanent testament to a life of generosity — from billy tea on an open fire for strangers, to a place among the nation's most revered cultural institutions.
