By Samantha Wortelhock
Original was Commissioned by a private collector
Canvas size 1000mm x 700mm

The Story behind the Painting

The painting depicts an hour-glass with the judge and jury forcing the fate of a young aboriginal man. In a breach-birth position, the man is struggling, stuck between the world of lore and law. Time for him is certainly running out as it is for the system which crushes him. On the left of the hour glass we see him in custody, beaten and as he sleeps, wounded, his soul body flies back to his ancestors in the Milky Way, his soul searching for meaning.

On the right of the hour glass we see his family at his grave-side, they too are affected by the consequences of his treatment. They grieve the loss of their loved one and the loss of their culture and as the mother screams, her sound goes un-heard.

Below the hourglass we see a cross-roads depicting the status quo. Within the round-a-bout of reason sit a policeman, a judge and two Elders. In this circle of communication each hears the others perspectives. This is the critical moment of change. A time when voices are heard.

Below this we see the river carved by Rainbow Serpent, a vital ancestral law-maker, and within the river we see Catfish, one of Bill’s totems. This is the river which shows that beginnings, middles and ends exist simultaneously and that decisions can change matters in an instant. The policeman to the left only has to step on the stepping stones and glimpse the indigenous world view to begin the road to restorative change.

Beneath the river lies the land of the Wardaman. The Law Place where the Imulun Tree is (reached to by a dry river bed on Bill’s land). Within the tree is an ancient stone axe. Here men and women meet separately to decide consequences of broken law. The tomemic law creatures also reside in this place at other times to keep the law place sacred. A double helix of black and white surrounds the Imulun place to show that we share a genetic heritage despite sharing different world views as black and white. Sky Boss, or Nardi along with Earth Mother (or Dung Dung) along with Rainbow are the chief law makers. They reside in the Milky Way as black figures near the Southern Cross (see the graveside scene) Dung Dung, with her splayed legs on the left side, and Nardi with his stringlines which stretch across the Milky Way to protect the laws, is on the right. They protect the boundaries of the Imulun place together, she looking after the female law and he the male.

Surrounding the space we see families on the land together. They are taking responsibility themselves for the punishment of the law breakers. They decide in the Imulun Place the fate of the accused and they support the process of teaching as a community. Once the punishment is complete the status of the law breaker is restored and all is forgiven. Some punishments may be harsh but always the person is accepted back as whole.

At the bottom right hand corner we see a mother and her newborn looking up to see Diamond Dove. The mother has just given birth in the birthing cave. All four birds flying above the land are lawmaking totems. Diamond Dove is the totem for Bill’s mother, Ludi Yibaluma. As the women see the bird fly over, the newborn is given Diamond Dove as her totem for life. Her law. The law for doctor ladies. The Wedgetailed Eagle is the totem of Bill’s stepfather Joe Jomornji, who taught Bill the laws of his people. Tawny Frogmouth is the keeper of the laws and Bill said to Hugh that this is his (totem). The brown falcon is the totem for Lily, a Wardaman Elder, and is the teacher. Bill said to Hugh recently, “Samantha shares Lily’s totem”.

The four birds, from their objective perspective observe the lawmaking. The overhead view is important and contrasts with the flat, myopic perspective of the judicial scene in the top third of the painting.

On the mushroom rock called “Kanin” or policing rock, a major lawmaking place for the men, an Elder allows the judge to see the difference in the two systems of Law and punishment. The judge appears regretful and the Elder is forgiving in his reaction. Restorative and hopeful. Objective.

“Circles” was painted with much accuracy of detail. Samantha worked from photographs that depict some of the Wardaman land; and details of Aboriginal experience, including some brutalities of custodial reality that were discussed within briefings with Hugh. No depictions of actual individuals appear in the painting, however, and mysteries of unknown reality and indeed secret mystery probably pervade it without being seen! As to history, most indigenous families in Australia have stories of treatment within law procedures, processes and systems that are strange and at times incomprehensible to them, and which are literally unlawful in both worlds.

Circles

Our sons are dying
Our mothers are crying

Our prisons are full of our people despairing
Our families are mourning and no one is caring

We live in your world and try hard to fit in
But no one listens to our dying within

We’ve come so far away from our kinship and soil
To cities and chaos and people disloyal

To a system which breaks spirits to unravel our past
With ratified policies to fix it all fast

For thousands of years we’ve managed
Our human failings

With laws which allow us the chance to mend
And in turn learn from our mentor or friend

There is punishment and we feel it cut deep
But once over we’re restored and brought home to
keep

No stigma or shame remains in our core
So we can stand, forgiven, an example to all

We sit in circles and we hold up the lore
And our lore holds us and gives us back more

The circle unites us and time repeats over
The lessons of one and thus serves for ever

Our Elders keep safe our ancestral laws
Which has kept us aware for thousands of years

It is so hard for us to go to a place of self loathing
To be locked up in a jail beaten and bleeding

No compassion for people displaced in their land
Living laws of another who will never understand

Our pride has been lost and our frameworks are breaking
Our names forgotten and our bodies won’t awaken

We are lost in a world where we are forsaken
A life, once a child, now gone, wasted, taken.