_x000B_This painting represents the four clan groups or language groups around Borroloola. On the left of the painting, in white and black at the top, are the Yanyuwa. On the right-hand side of them are the Mara. Underneath in yellow and black are Gudanji with Garawa on the right in black and white. While we are four different groups we are all related through ceremony, culture, land and marriage. The circle represents the ceremony that ties us together._x000B_The boat in the centre of the painting represents one a prau that the Macassans used to sail from Indonesia to the Gulf of Carpentaria. My great-grandfather saw one of these and he went and painted it on his country at a cave at Spring Creek. The Macassans are part of our history; they came long before white people. We traded with them._x000B_In the box at the top of the painting are three groups of people. On the left-hand side are Aboriginal people wondering what’s going on. In the middle are pastoralists and on the right are government people. This image represents us as separate groups, not working together. _x000B_On the right-hand side are four boxes. At the top, in profile is a man, he’s a government man. Below him is a man with white hair, he represents the boss of the mine, not caring about what happens to our country. Below him are miners setting up a drilling rig. At the bottom in the background are two miners standing in front of a piece of rock art. This represents how they don’t care about the rock art sites or our sacred sites. They go looking for them, taking pictures or they ignore them when the mines go in. _x000B_This painting, like all my paintings, is about getting people to pull up and to start thinking about what’s going on and how we can work together to share the benefits from the resources that come from our country._x000B_
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Artwork Size: 60 x 60cm
Catalogue No: 72-23
