By Samantha Wortelhock & Damien Naughton
Original Painting and Limited Edition Giclee Size: 850 x 1450mm (34" x 58")

Passover

Step into my shoes
For I've stepped in yours
And yet my feet belong to the ground
I've looked through your eyes
It made me sad
So follow me into my world

Without shoes you feel the pulse of this land
And it beats to the rhythm of heart
You touch your Self
And remember so much
Listen Now
Feel a different wealth

Embrace your children
Give them your time
For their joy will tickle the land
Laugh with them and it will be
Heard by the stars and
In the sound of the sand

Look around you
Feel your rhythm
If it's lost then slow down and be free
Go back to a time when your heart felt joy
Be honest
If you want, come with me

I know how to share
I know we are One
I know because my ancestors whisper
They sing through the waves
They speak on the wind and through
Rock paintings they silently disappear

Imagine this life
Grasp it's message with all of your focus
Feel it's powerful wind lash
On the turn of your tide
Let chaos find order
And surrender on shores where waves crash

The Story Behind The Painting
Passover has become one of Sam’s favourite paintings. It took Damien and Sam four months to paint Passover. Talks with local Arakwal Elders taught the artists that Byron Bay, being the most Easterly point and where the sun first kisses Australia each day means that it is where Rainbow Serpent is renewed daily. This is why the painting is flooded with rainfbow colours. The totemic creature for the women is the dolphin so the painting depicts the women leaping amongst the waves and for the men it is the sea eagle so their spirits fly amongst the birds. Beyond the Pass is Little Wategoes beach, a birthing place so we see a woman with her newborn appear from the far end of the Pass. The painting is about reminding us all that a simple life gives time for children and rest and time to think about what is important; family, the land and survival. One of the neices of the Arakwal aunties who told Samantha the stories came to the artist’s gallery and said that the woman sitting on the beach in pink looked exactly like her aunty who lives in a house at the Pass.