Rat and Squid #669-21

Signed Certificate of Authenticity

(Requires Framing)

A$1,570

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Artwork Details

Medium Acrylic, Canvas (Requires Framing)
Dimensions 61.5cm (W) x 91cm (H) x 5cm (D)
Review Stars 21,258 Customer Reviews

Indigenous Art Code

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Artwork Description

"One day a rat went down to the sea-side and he could see an island, not very far away. He thought and thought about how he could get across to that island.
A squid came along and said 'What's on your mind rat?' The rat told him he'd like to go across to the island but he didn't know how to get there.
The old squid scratched his head and then said: 'Rat, I think I could take you there - you'd better jump on my back and I'll swim with you, across to that island.'
So the rat jumped onto the squid's back and away they went. But the swell gradually increased more and more, and every time it came it brushed all the whiskers back from the squid's mouth and head.
The old rat laughed every time it happened, and when the squid ask, 'what are you laughing at?' The rat kept saying 'Nothing, nothing funny.' Anyway, they went ashore then and started to make a fire with fire sticks, then they sat down to have a meal. Rat then asked the squid, 'do you want to know what I was laughing at? It's because every time the swell came it brushed your whiskers right back!'
So the squid picked up his spear and speared the rat right in the backside, and that's how the rat got his tail - through the spear.
That old rat then picked up a piece of charcoal and hit the squid right on the back, and that's how the squid got his black ink!"

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