My country

That is how a lot of the indigenous people refer to Australia and rightly so. The Gallery of Modern Art held an exhibition entitled "My country I still call Australia home "and my mother in law and I went along to explore it. We came away from a guided tour shaken by the strength of emotion that surrounds the way indigenous people create art, their stories and lives but also the clear indication from white Australians of how wrong they were in their treatment of these people. A lot has changed since those early years when the settlers were intent on exterminating a population or ensuring that children were brought up away from their families, by white people, who knew better. Some of the art was steeped in tradition, the law poles painted with natural colours to keep out the evil spirits, the flying floxes depicted in colours of orchre and black, the funeral poles containing the bones of persons, to be accompanied by spirits into the next world. 

 The Flying floxes depicted in colours from the earth 

A traditional head gear encompassing some of the rituals 

 Some of the beautiful woven baskets 

One of the amazing family portraits created by Vernon Ah Kee 

 The funeral poles where the bones of ancestors are kept to allow the spirits to take them to the next life.

One of the politically charged works - it took a long time for the politicians to say sorry for all the wrong policies perpetrated on the aboriginal people and yet they can forgive.This work done by Bindi Cole of the Wathaurung people a composition with emu feathers of a very emotive message.

Samantha  Hobson's Burnt grass seems utterly real in its colours and tenor.

The mimies - spirits who live in the rocks 

The wonderful pots with depictions of bush tucker created by the some of the aboriginal clans up north though this is an art that has only recently been taken up by them.