Australian Aboriginal Art Symbols
The Visual Indigenous Language that Communicates Cultural Life.
I’m resident in the UK, but my daughter went to work in Australia after finishing uni, to gain some world and career experience. There, she met, fell in love with, and married a great Aussie guy. Last Xmas, they visited us, bringing Chris, his mother, with them. They gave us a present of a piece of original artwork by the Aboriginal artist, Linda Huddleston, who now lives in Canberra. She’s connected to the Ngardi language group in the Roper River region of East Arnhem Land on her father’s side and the Wiradjuri people of NSW are connected through her mother’s people from Talbragar, Dubbo. Linda also has a connection to her grandmother, who, when still a baby, was taken from her birthplace in the Tanami desert of Central Australia and adopted into the Ngardi way of life.
After the bombing of Darwin 1941, her grandparents and father had to move from Groote Eylandt to Mulgoa, near Warragamba Dam, as part of a government policy aimed at forcing Aboriginal people to assimilate into mainstream society.
Chris also made me a present of a book she’d brought with her, ‘Spirits of the Ghan’ by Judy Nunn, a novel set against the background of the construction of the last part of the Ghan railway, a line joining Adelaide with Darwin. Among…
