Gay Hawkes (1942-2025) was a nationally respected furniture maker, sculptor and artist, particularly well known for pioneering the use of found materials such as horizontal scrub, driftwood, and shipping pallets in her furniture.

 

Roger Scholes (1950 – 2022) was an Australian filmmaker who worked in a variety of genres, including drama, documentary, and art. Roger was filming Gay Hawkes for over 30 years of their friendship and upon events like a furniture making workshop for girls, aiming to develop their independence, or Gay’s expedition to truwana / Cape Barren Island, to assemble the Christmas show with the putalina people. In 2019, Natalia Laska joined Roger in his effort to document Gay’s life.

 

“Roger’s footage is ‘free’ from the influence of the film industry or and schedule constraints; therefore, it represents spontaneous moments captured by the filmmaker who liked to chat with his protagonists. Roger's close and not always easy relationship with Gay, is captured in his footage, and often feels like a stream-of-consciousness. After joining Roger in the process of filming Gay's life, I built a friendship with both of them. All of us were always hungry of ‘fresh’ content, either personal or political. Gay was a fierce feminist and activist who never stopped questioning Australian politics in relation to Indigenous people, gender constrains or the British royals that she equally loved and hated. In Gay’s last years, her creative anger was directed at the social framework governing the aging of women. Again she refused to conform to the expectation of a 'graceful disappearance".

(Natalia Laska). 

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The documentary fusion of two filmmakers work is covering over 30 years of Gay Hawkes life and art making is currently in post-production, aiming to be completed in 2027.