Arone Raymond Meeks was a prolific Aboriginal Australian artist who intuitively engaged in imaging making with natural flair for drawing. He expressed a unique spiritual response and connection to ancestral spirits and Country. Bridging disparate worlds, he represented traditional cultural responsibility within a unique contemporary expression. Meeks produced paintings, sculptures and prints that express a passion for spirit, sexuality and Indigenous identity. His art connected him to a contemporary identity through a shifting lens of traditional representation and reconciliation. He was immersed in dreams and experiences of heritage and ancestry that reached him emotionally, and through a spiritual harmony sourced in nature.

Born in Sydney, 1957, Meeks grew up in the Country of his ancestors in Far North Queensland. He returned to Sydney to attend art school in the 1980’s. As one of the founding members of Boomali, the Sydney based Indigenous Artist Collective, he contributed to create the first of its kind in Australia. On his return to Far North Queensland in the 1990’s, he continued to inspire generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists until his death in 2021. By initiating groundbreaking artistic and cultural activities, he demonstrated the value and viability of Contemporary Indigenous Art in the region. These efforts established awareness of an incredible outpouring of Indigenous visual expression from artists across the Cape York Peninsula and the Torres Strait Islands. In addition, his participation created a dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

During his life Meeks received a number of prestigious awards and fellowships. These included the first Indigenous Australian artist residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris; this experience initiated international travel and networks that had significant impact. However, Arone chose to settle in Cairns, close to the Country of his traditionally initiated grandfather.

He spent time within remote Indigenous communities and supported their cultural expression for many decades. Reciprocating his connection to art with community provided a belonging embedded in Indigenous social foundations. His name ‘Arone’, which means Crane, was given by one of Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous artists Dr Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher AO (1937-2011), an Australian sculptural artist, educator, linguist and elder of the Thainakuith people. To Meeks, Thancoupie was ‘Athoy’ (spiritual mother).

Meeks Indigenous kinship links are with the Kuku Midiji of Cape York Peninsula, around the township of Laura. The area is known as a site of magnificent rock art galleries filled with drawings of spirit beings known as Quinkans. Meeks had indicated it as a place of Aboriginal magic and sorcery. Being on Country had a visceral effect on the artist, and the physical reaction helped him embody sacred concepts and forge a sense of self through ‘renewing the dreaming’. However, Meeks never considered his art governed by the same lore and protocols associated with traditional Aboriginal visual Culture. Instead, he positioned himself in the context of  the contemporary urban. Within proximity to traditional tribal lands, he inhabited a reconstructed world, saying, “I am hunting for lost pieces of myself.” His art objects became his children, sent off into the world, and like children, the finished works may have taken some time to reveal their full consequences to him. It was a process where imagination came from within, and the potential for visual narrative through connection to the spirits of place.

As a prolific artist, Arone produced visual artwork that are colourful, sensual and full of complex narrative storylines. His works invite the viewer in, and brings people together.