Kat Rae
Army, Printmaker
“Art or army?” seventeen year old Kat wrote in her diary.
Passionate about both, Kat excelled in her art class at school while also enjoying army cadets. Upon being offered a scholarship to study for her Bachelor of Arts at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), the answer was easy.
“I felt it was a young person’s career and I was ready to leave the farm and search for adventure.”
Kat also knew that, no matter where she was and what she was doing, she would always keep art in her life. She accepted and signed on for nine years.
Her instincts about a military career were right and Kat received a Queen’s Commission at Duntroon and went on to further study, achieving a Master of Engineering Management and a Master of Military Strategy and Defence Studies.
Her first deployment was to Kuwait as a Lieutenant. Kat loved working in the logistical hub, with a platoon of about forty personnel. They ensured that supplies, ammunition, machinery and various bespoke items were sourced and processed on their way to and from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers needed to be fully kitted and armed before heading to the war zone, while utilised equipment needed to be sent home for refurbishment or disposal.
Just over a year before her deployment, Kat met Andrew, who was in the Armoured Corps. When he returned from Iraq and she from Kuwait, they married in Darwin. Kat had been in the army for five years.
Her second deployment was to Afghanistan as a Captain. She helped run a specialised workshop there, war-fitting and training soldiers on the constantly evolving and upgraded military machinery and equipment. Kat’s 10-year contract was up. However, she knew she wasn’t ready to walk away, so she chose to serve for a further five years.
Kat’s third and final deployment was again to Afghanistan. This time as a Major, her role was to retrain Afghan army and police personnel in order to help them preserve their country’s security after withdrawal of the Coalition military forces.
It was during this time that Andrew’s service caused him to suffer both serious back injuries and deteriorating mental health. His time in Afghanistan was cut short and he transitioned out of the military. His adaptation to civilian life added to his instability.
“It was a long decline,” Kat remembers of those years.
She was still in the ADF, now working in Melbourne, when she joyfully discovered that she was pregnant. Their baby was born perfectly healthy. However, tragically, Andrew, suffering Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) passed, when their daughter was only two years old.
After twenty years of service, Kat knew it was time, once she had finished her term, to focus on both herself and her child.
“I had walked in a fog of shock and grief,” Kat says.
Kat remembers the tremendous support of her family and both her military and non-military friends during this time. Even so, the challenge of living her life was very difficult for her.
These friends and family members supported Kat’s healing, with her plan to walk the 780 kilometre pilgrimage, Camino de Santiago (The Way) in Spain.
Along this journey, she stopped at the Cruz de Ferro monument. Rather than a monument to those who have died, it’s a place to leave a part of yourself in any form that you choose. Kat left a white stone from the Australian War Memorial that had been decorated by her daughter. As she walked away without that small stone, she felt her life load lessen.
Back in Melbourne, Kat successfully applied for a three-year degree in Fine Arts.
“Sometimes, I get exhausted at learning new things. But this is the best kind of labour and learning I could be doing.”
Commenting on a piece of her artwork, Kat says that she has created four maps that represent journeys.
“One was Andrew’s. One, mine. One, our five-year-old daughter’s. The last one might be yours. In another piece, despite being bitterly disappointed about how my image was so underexposed on my copper plate, I have grown to love what the processing fault has created.”
Kat’s photographic etching, Reckoning, was a finalist in the 2022 Napier Waller Art Prize competition.
“The Brereton Report gave Australians a reckoning when it was released in November 2020. I meshed together images of the heavily redacted Brereton Report and the Australian War Memorial, to depict where this reckoning lies. Was that a grainy aerial photograph of a foreign war zone? The acid-burnt holes grew like multiple shotgun wounds across the work’s landscape. I added women in burkas who represent war’s ‘collateral damage’. My artwork urges us to courageously reckon with the unvarnished truth.”
It seems that Kat no longer needs to ask, “Art or army?” Today she ensures that her love of both has remained, becoming a strong and balanced part of who she is.
@kat_a_rae
