By Samantha Wortelhock
Painting and Lmited Edition Glycee Print Size: 1100mm x 790mm

The Last Supper
The last individual survivors of twelve species arrived to hear
a great Elder speak.

"Our land of the Big Red Rock was passed over to the many
edible creatures who were put here in great numbers in the hot
cruel sun to dig and trample our soil. Only the wind has the
land's ashes and dust to fall in vast valleys far under our seas.

Our land is so fragile that the Great Spirits knew that we were
to touch it lightly. So they created animals that hop with soft
paws barely touching it nightly.

But it is so hard for the greedy to listen when all they do is to
need. So great farms are built, trees flattened, fences made
for the containment of edible breeds.

But they miss the point of why we are here: that we are all
sacred and depend

Upon each other to hold up the Great Living Web; one we now
cannot mend.

And so it is sad, my fellow land lovers, that tonight we sit here
at vast Uluru

A meeting place of great dignity

A symbol of Nature, of timelessness and spiritual gravity.

While we share a meal, this shameful spread.

A symbol of cultural depravity.

The Story Behind the Painting
Most of my paintings appear to me in my dreams or during meditation and The Last Supper idea occurred to me on the Sydney Harbour Bridge while I was thankfully the passenger in a car. The idea struck me as so powerful and relevant that I couldn't wait to get home. That first version is a painting which will for ever belong to me and depicts animals the world over at the table depicted in Leonardo Da Vinci's original. However, I believe the image you see before you now is the definitive version as the spiritual significance of Uluru is a superior backdrop.

Uluru means meeting place in the local Aboriginal language and here we have the last members of their species gathering at this auspicious site for their Last Supper. Heading the meeting is an Aboriginal Elder who also shares their demise: loss of their land and habitat, for a mono culture of hoofed edible animals for the human's insatiable appetite for meat.

In the background a kangaroo boxes a cow to reclaim the land and the irony of it is that had we opted to eat the kangaroo rather than the cow the land would have been saved from the destructive erosion caused by the hoof and lack of informed choice.

On the wall of the cave you can see painted on the walls the image of the Tasmanian Tiger, a creature which once lived at Uluru just 2,000 years ago. It's fate was sealed when dingoes were introduced by humans crossing the seas from the North. It stands as a symbol for two things: man's negative impact and through art his unique ability to be visionary, intelligent and forward thinking.

I consider The Last Supper to be my favourite painting. It's meaning and worth as a prophetic image will only grow if some of these animals do become extinct. It is my hope that instead the image will re-mind us to re-think and re-consider our place as just one species of many sharing one home and therefore we must listen to those, like the Elder seated at this table, who share a wisdom of the land which richly honours our Mother Earth and all it's children. The wealth and hope for our future is in living simply, loving better without discrimination and taking responsibility for the land which we have on loan from our children.