Super Soakers

Naomi Hobson works across painting, photography and ceramics. She resides in Coen, in the eastern Cape York peninsula, living on the banks of the riverbeds where her grandparents were born. Her residence and studio are an old tin shed which was once used as the Coen village church. Coen is a small township of 300 people, situated at the bottom of the McIlwraith Ranges, much of which is rainforest and open wooded Country, with many river systems that snake down to the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef. Her continued inspiration is these vast lands of her Ancestors, which belong to and are cared for by the Kaantju, Umpila, Lama Lama, Ayapathu, Wik-Mungkan and Olkola peoples.

Super Soakers, part of a series by Hobson titled Adolescent Wonderland, offers a rare glimpse into the lives of young people in the township of Coen, encouraging the viewer to enter dream-like ‘wonderlands’ where they can become part of and interact with the community. Hobson captures the sitters in moments of cheer, reflection, contemplation, relaxation and sometimes, meditation, to document the happiness, optimism and wittiness that is Indigenous life in Coen today.

The landscape of Coen is imbued with a marked political history yet, underneath the trauma of settlement and the violence of the pastoral industry, the young people offer us as viewers a sense of confidence and hope for the future. Hobson says, “I find photography particularly enables me to raise issues and promote awareness of our everyday life experiences … I feel it doesn’t need to be picture perfect and [viewed] as a fine art – I’m using the medium to tell real stories that I feel don’t get told or haven’t been told. I want people to see who our youth really are - fun, playful, smart, proud, adventurous, and witty.”