By Samantha Wortelhock & Damien Naughton
Original Painting and Limited Edition Giclee Size: 740mm x 1190mm

Hard Act to Swallow
A party took place
In far Arnhem Land
The School of the Air
Had just broken up

From all over the Territory
Friends came together
To play, eat tucker
And muck up

While the children played footy
In the hot midday sun
The parents sat under a tree
Glad of the shade
They took turns to watch
Keeping an eye out for
All they could see.

Then out of the blue
Came the sound of beaks stealing
And the parents leapt up from the tree.
Five cheeky emus were eating their lunch
They were tired of grass, insects and fleas.

There lay the rub
-the wrong sort of grub
Both in the minds of humans and birds
They began to run, sugar- fuelled in the sun
Back to their own native scrub

The Story Behind the Painting
During an exhibition in Cairns Samantha met an elderly woman who was fascinated by this painting. The woman had had much to do with the Arnhem land Aboriginal people and taught many of them art. This scene, set in Arnhem land shows and end of term party for children taught with School of the Air. On show is the party food being stolen by the emus as the children play. Sam had painted the painting as a light, humorous depiction of playfulness. The woman told her that when the Aboriginal children were stolen, the authorities enticed them with cakes and biscuits and lollies. Suddenly the poem to Hard Act to Swallow had even more meaning than Sam knew when she wrote it.