Gift Card - Marlene Rubuntja and Thea Perkins

You are on Aboriginal Land
Marlene Rubuntja and Thea Perkins
© Marlene Rubuntja, Thea Perkins and Tangentyere Artists, 2023

Reprising the bold visual language of iconic 80s protest posters to speak to issues that face us today, this work is one from a series of five screenprints, protesting climate change and its impact on the desert.

‘First Nations people are the first and will be the worst effected with fracking and the mismanagement of precious water resources - just two of many impending catastrophes. Made using artwork generated in Mparntwe in a series of workshops, all proceeds from sales will go directly to collaborating Town Camp Artists.’ - Thea Anamara Perkins

Thea Anamara Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon artist whose practice incorporates portraiture and landscape to question representations of First Nations peoples and Country. With a delicate hand, Thea answers heavy questions about what it means to be First Nations and interrogates contemporary portrayal. This work was a collaboration between Perkins and celebrated artist and senior community leader Marlene Rubuntja. For this work they drew on both their individually powerful autographical practices and the activist voices of Marlene’s late father, Wenten Rubuntja, and Perkins’ grandfather, Charlie Perkins. These two men worked together for the common cause of Land Rights. In 1975, Mr Perkins and Mr Rubuntja became chair and deputy chair respectively of the new Central Aboriginal Land Council. Rubuntja was its subsequent chair, and in 1988 he and Yunupingu AM (1948- 2023) presented Prime Minister Bob Hawke with the Barunga Statement, calling for a treaty.