Healing Land, Rivers, Seas and Ocean

Charlie Chambers painting ‘Healing Land, Rivers, Sea and Ocean’ represents each part of the land and sea coming together as one, each natural ecosystem connecting in a myriad of ways to heal.

Starting at the bottom of the painting you will see the land featuring a kangaroo and emu with each of their unique tracks represented: “The reason why I put the kangaroo and emu on there…..it’s representing the coat of arms, the kangaroo and emu facing each other.”

In the centre of the painting you will see a freshwater stream with platypus, silver perch, eel and dhu fish: “The eel and dhu fish, they go amongst the weeds, that’s why you’ve got the green and yellow representing the undergrowth in the water….When you look at the dark blue [dots], that’s the river running, the flow of the river.”

This then connects to the shoreline where you can see people and community: “It’s about healing the land and culture. When you talk about culture these guys are painted up representing culture...they’re holding artefacts, they’ve got boomerangs...the ladies got the dillybag and the digging stick”

Next to the shoreline is the ocean: “Here [top left corner] you’ve got the turtle...when they come up to the shore they lay their eggs....So, you look after the shore; you look after the land…...Here [bottom left corner of painting] you’ve got dolphins...you look at Moreton Island for instance where they feed the dolphins every afternoon. So, if you look after the land, you let dolphins be happy and come back for feeding time.”