29-year-old Jordan Morris, from Mt Hagen in Western Highlands Province, fought tooth and nail to save his mother, who was diagnosed with Stage Three Cervical Cancer at the Port Moresby General Hospital in June 2022.
Going by the pseudonym ‘Grim Jordan’ on social media, the Brisbane-based artist found that he was swimming against a tide of medical bills, food and hospital fees associated with his late mother’s treatment.
Being a student, the only way to make some money and assist his mother was to use his platform to reach out for public assistance, with his first Facebook posting on August 2nd, 2022, that the late Amelia Wattz “was in so much pain and agony”, and “she was prescribed Panadol to cope”.
“It was a wakeup call for all of us,” he shared near his exhibition in the Sydney International Convention Centre. “Not just me but people around me as well to realise the medical system of our country but also leveraging my artwork to raise funds to help her. That sort of gave me the platform and it went viral from there.
“That was my viral moment. It was bittersweet because it was my mom’s pain and her struggles that actually pushed my artwork to the forefront.”
Jordan grew up in Goroka, moved to Port Moresby then on to Brisbane to do his studies. This year, on July 11th, he proudly graduated with a Master’s degree in business, in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship; the same path his mother once took at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
For someone who has lived in Australia for 12 years, he explained that their ‘wakeup call’ was life-changing, especially when they had to go to the Port Moresby General Hospital, sleep on the floor beside their mother’s hospital bed and watch her put on a brave face while drinking painkillers to ease the pain.
In spite of their best efforts, their mother passed away in The Medical City, a hospital in Philippines, on August 25th, 2022. This happened two days after she was referred from PMGH.
“My mother, going through it in PNG, I had to see it firsthand, like everyone else. It was being through the system to see how much work that needs to be done, in terms of our facilities and all of this,” he explained.
“The reason why I used my artwork to raise money – and I sold them at a very high price – was because the cost to get help required paying a high price. Obviously, I’m not one to ask for handouts – and I’m always working – so I used my artwork and leveraged them. I even did a GoFundMe. It worked hand in hand, the best way, because people bought my artworks and I was able to help pay for some of the medical bills and even pay for my fees as well, during that time.”
Apart from supporting himself and his siblings, Jordan also donates his artwork to organisations that align with his principles. In November, he donated an art piece to the PNG Gulf Association of Queensland, which was auctioned at a record price. Proceeds from that will go towards health and education programs conducted by the association.
He hopes to do as much as he can to at least help ease other families’ pain, an experience he and his siblings went through with their mother.
Jordan’s dream is to see a better health system for the people of Papua New Guinea.
While his mother is gone now, his work has only begun.