Local news for local people
Book Review - "Living Treasures of Oberon" by Mick Joffe
November 21, 2024
If you have walked through the Oberon Common lately you can't have
failed to see the wall of Living Treasures.
Former Oberon Mayor had this to say when the construction of the wall began in late 2022:
"The Living Treasures is a group of prominent Oberon residents recognised for their contributions to the Oberon community through the commissioning of professional caricatures in the early 1990s. The caricatures were done by well known caricaturist Mick Joffe. Each caricature has a very recognisable pencil sketch and an outline of the person's life which is generally in the person's own words."
"The Living Treasures were displayed for many years in the Robert Hooper Centre which tended to limit the number of people who saw them. The location also meant that these valuable historical items needed to be regularly moved when events were held in the centre. The constant moving and rehanging of the caricatures put the original items at risk.
"Funding was made available to produce etched metal copies of each Living Treasure to be displayed permanently in The Common. The original Living Legends caricatures will be stored safely as historical artifacts."
This book not only lets you see what the sketches are like, but includes a comprehensive story about each picture and the person featured. It is a wonderful example of the way that a community is made up of the people in it and their stories.
The wall.
It's a bit difficult to review a book which is all about the illustrations, so here is what the jacket blurb has to say:
"Living Treasures of Oberon" is many things beyond the local book it seems to be. It is a recognition and celebration of the district's oldest generation while they are still with us. With this book we are saying how proud we are of them. They have built the district as we know it.
Oberon is the only town in Australia to have done this - this book is a first.
It is a book to celebrate the Centenary of Federation, it is a book to celebrate the Year of the Outback, it is a book of quality Australian Black and White Art by one of Australia's leading caricaturists. These are some of Mick Joffe's finest line caricatures drawn to date.
He has drawn many thousand Australian Characters in his lifetime and in a way they were poured into the powerful Oberon caricatures. He has drawn them with humour yet affection and their entire lives are before you in these their last interviews. There is no joumalist slant. These great Australians are recorded with simplicity and pride, in their own words and they reflect the lives and times of many rural towns and people of Australia.
As you get older your mind goes back increasingly to your mother and father and growing up in the family home and you think. "Now what memories have l that l can pass on to my children?"
"Living Treasures of Oberon" will help us cast our own minds back, and as we drink a glass of water let us think of those who dug the well.
You can find a copy of the book in the Oberon Library and copies should be available for purchase at the Visitor Information Centre. It was published as a project of Oberon Rotary.
About the author
Mick Joffe was born in I950 in Maroubra, NSW. During his childhood he travelled extensively in the bush with his father, Lou Joffe, and his brother David, catching and collecting wherever there were creeks and swamps frogs, eels, fish, tortoises, lizards, snakes and crayfish. From the age of about 18 he has been collecting history and Australian relics. Since I971 his caricatures have appeared in the newspapers and he has drawn caricatures professionally in 23 countries in Europe and the Middle East. He has travelled the Outback of Australia for 3 years and is widely known by his red Troopcarrier and straw boater decorated with pencils.
From the early 1990s Mick's collecting instincts and his caricature art have come together. The result is Australia's first museum of characters 750 of their caricatures and their oral histories. Since publishing 125 of them in the book "Endangered Characters of Australia", recognition of Mick's work has been slowly increasing. He has spoken on Endangered Characters to some 300 groups and organisations. He was granted an Honorary Master's Degree from the University of NSW for his work. In 1997 he was Homsby Shire's Citizen of the Year. In 1999 he was granted a Fellowship in the Australian Institute of History and Art. He has been made an Honorary Member of The Rotary Club of Oberon. In November 1999 he was invited to join the International Writers' Association, based in America. This book is a 40 year culmination of these stages in Mick's life.
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