Poison country

Jonathan Kumintjara Brown, a member of the Stolen Generations, was born in 1960 in Yalata, near the west coast of South Australia. After reconnecting with his family as an adult, he learned the Pitjantjatjara language and discovered his ancestral Country of Oak Valley, Ooldea and Maralinga.

In Poison country, Brown refers to the British atomic tests at Maralinga in the far north of South Australia between 1953 and 1963, following which many people suffered the effects of radiation exposure. Desert sand from Brown’s grandfather’s Country, close to a test site, is rubbed across the painting to conceal his depictions of ancestral sites. By masking these sites with the red earth, the artist transforms the painting into both an outpouring of grief and an expression of traumatic personal experience, alerting the viewer to the catastrophic consequences of colonisation. Through his choice of title, Brown reminds us of the ongoing impact and devasting legacy of the testing for Aboriginal people and Country.

Gloria Strzelecki, Associate Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art