“Hunter & Tucker” by Robert Campbell Jr.
Hunter & Tucker
(Quote from Plato Puzzles’ site)
The original artwork hangs in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and was painted way back in 1987.
This artwork is not just a vibrant illustration of one of the unique aboriginal contributions to Australian culture, but a celebration of life in Australia. The strong yellow ochres symbolise our sun-drenched land. Robert’s unique portrayal of the sun feeding energy, or life force, into all creatures reflect the strong character of the Australian Wildlife. From the life-force grows the spirit of the Creation Ancestors inside all living things. Robert portrays our Ancestors as like ‘bow-ties’ inside the people and animals living ‘the Dreaming’. On the right hand side of the artwork is the human world, the left hand side represents our natural world. Robert portrays traditional aboriginal life, with the woman and baby on the bottom right, with all the digging tools she would take with her on her daily forage for food, or ‘tucker’. Above this is the male aboriginal with all the tools he takes with him on his daily hunt for meat. He is the ‘hunter’. Together the woman and man become representative of the ‘Hunter & Tucker’. On the left hand side of the artwork Robert captures all the chief animals created by the Ancestors in their roaming of the world. The kangaroo, (warrior Dreaming), the emu, goanna, rainbow serpent, cat fish, turtle, koala, crab, platypus, shellfish, witchety-grub, sea worm and eel.