A BRILLIANT MESSAGE

Who are your favorite artists?

During my lifetime I’ve seen a lot of paintings and appreciated a lot of artists. As a school teacher and principal working on both remote communities and urban centres in W.A. in the Northern Territory of Australia, I have come to appreciate a lot of student art and the way artistic depiction represents feelings.

We’ve travelled and seen art on display, both in two and threedimensional form.

Maybe my appreciation of art is somewhat limited. But the piece of art that has made the most indelible impression on my mind ever, is a painting titled “The First Supper“. The artist is Susan White.

This is a painting of women of the world, in which and Aboriginal Australian Lady is front and centre. Women of other ethnic groups sit to her right and her left.

This painting is significant to me because it signifies the central aspect of one of the oldest cultures in the world, that of Aboriginal Australia.

I bought a copy of the painting at the New Prophet Bookshop in Manica ACT many years ago and had it framed. I’ve kept it to this day because of its significant message and the appeal that it has to my thinking about “First People” and the importance of the role filled by women in this world.