'Arltunga' reproduction and prints by Ambrose Killian
'Arltunga' reproduction and prints by Ambrose Killian
This beautiful artwork comes in 3 different material options with 3 available sizes - please note, textured and smooth rag options come in A2, A1 and A0 sizes for your convenience - a frame will need to be purchased for display. Stretched canvas options are ready for hanging and display on your wall.
Please contact us directly if you have any custom sizing queries (original artwork 101x152cm).
This piece represents my country and history, specifically the ancient area of the desert to which my Nana’s family was displaced from prior to being put onto Santa Teresa Mission and ultimately stolen and removed from her family to Garden Point (Pirlangimpi – Melville Island, Northern Territory).Each old colonial settlement through my country in the desert was formed around pre- existing and ancient waterholes, some of which were undetectable by the untrained eye. Prior to the gold rush through 1840’s these waterholes were as sacred as they were scarce, with mobs moving between them through the seasons and years, maintaining balance to the area for 60,000 years. The position of these waterholes was shared throughout the community and throughout neighbouring tribes when permission was granted. In 1887 David Lindsay a South Australian explorer observed a ruby near the present day Arltunga Pub, and so settlement began. The increased volume of visitors and introduction of cattle and livestock to the area meant by the 1930’s there was close to no local freshwater for consumption, and by the time my Nana was born they moved her and her people to a small mission South of Arltunga now called Santa Teresa. The large river like section through the middle of the piece represents the dry riverbeds around Arltunga, with the 2 large communities adjoining the river bed representing the First Nations’ mob and the other representing the communities who came with the gold rush. The speckled flecks of gold and copper throughout the painting represent the minerals dug up around the area and the contrasting ideologies of the traditional and colonial communities through the late 1800’s – The area is beautiful and has hidden gems, so we must preserve and protect this land to which we belong and from another perspective, the area is beautiful and has hidden gems, we must dig up what we find and sell it to make a living.