Mermaid #89-21

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A$2,200

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Artwork Details

Medium Acrylic, Linen (Requires Framing)
Dimensions 101.5cm (W) x 101.5cm (H) x 4cm (D)
Review Stars 21,258 Customer Reviews

Indigenous Art Code

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Artwork Description

Long ago the people of Birri, our Great Grandfather, told many stories of this land. This story is about the Mermaid and the Unseen People of Boorwa Hill. It is a legend about the Unseen People. So if you go to this part of land you have got to be quiet and no making noise or swearing.

And the story goes you've got to be very quiet when travelling through Boorwa Hill. But when you go through there you gotta take the owners of the country because they speak the language of the Unseen People. And another thing, you will get lost maybe for nights or days.

As for the mermaid the same thing will happen to you, she'll lead you astray.

The meaning of this story, you gotta respect this part of land because we believe they are here, they protect this land it is a spiritual country to us.

Artist Bio

"I was born on Brookdale Station, my father and mother worked there. My father was doing cattle work and my mother worked at a kitchen job, washing and cooking. My parents brought me back to the island and then went back to work, while my aunties and uncles raised me and I started going to school. In those days, mission days, my father Colin he didn't want that Peters name so he took Williams, that's why I'm Williams, after my Fathers name William Peters. This was the time when the Presbyterian Church came to the island. "I used to dance a lot, liked hunting and camping when I was young. I remember going away for my first dance trip when I was twelve years old, we went to Sydney, big city. In my twentys I was still travelling with the dance troop, I've been to New Guinea a couple of times, America, India, England. It was good travelling round sharing our culture, especially sharing with the American Indians, good to see others dance, a lot of different cultures, makes me feel stronger about mine. "I started painting back in 2005 at the Art Centre, but I was living in my country farther from town carrying on from my father, three fathers I've got. There was three old brothers from my country, old Gully, William and Henry Peters. Now I've got two boys and my wife, we all live at our outstation at Birri. There I continued to paint and make artefacts to sell independantly. I've come back to town now so can come to the art centre more regularly. Birri means place of many underground waters. We are showing our body painting, its something to share with our younger people and other people. We keep our body painting, its handed down from our fathers, it's good to keep it going, I like painting, I'm a culture man. All this came from the old people way back in the dreaming."

Commissions

John's studio is in Gununa, Mornington Island