Mother’s Night Sky by Alfred Hudson, 2022.
In GunaiKurnai culture, the stars tell us about the seasons – the time for hunting, the time for eating and the time for moving on. The Milky Way represents the rich river systems, and this is shown in the artwork with a strip of blue, covered by thousands of stars.
Within the artwork, you’ll notice several Bogong moth decorations. The Bogong moth was a seasonal food for GunaiKurnai people, coming down from Mt Hotham.
There’s also an owl hidden within the artwork. The owl represents wisdom and the Elders – it is a key feature of the night sky. Owls look over everyone at night. (Can you see it? Find the moth at the bottom of the picture... the two large circles on the wings are the owl's eyes, and the point at the bottom of the moth’s body is the owl’s beak.)
To truly understand this artwork, you need to understand this GunaiKurnai story from along the Mitchell River at Eagle Point. This story has been handed down through generations.
A long time ago, different tribes were meeting to trade near Eagle Point. A young boy was camping with his family when he spotted a group of Elders standing on the bluff. He crept up there and stole their spears.
Later, the boy spied an emu and decided to spear it, but the shots missed and his spears landed in the river. It was getting dark, the wind was picking up and rain was starting to fall. When the boy went to retrieve the spears from the river, he got stuck under a branch and could not get out of the river.
The emu saw the boy in trouble and stuck her neck out to help the boy. She held her head under the water, while the boy climbed up her neck and onto her body to get out of the river. The boy was saved... but the emu had drowned, the ultimate sacrifice.
The boy ran to let the Elders know what he’d done, and the Elders told him that it was ok. They told him that his totem would be the emu, and it would be his job to respect, understand and protect the emu.
While the Elders were talking to the boy, the spirit of the emu rose to the sky and became the Southern Cross.
In the artwork, you see the emu with its head on one side of the Milky Way (the river) and its body on the other. Its head is under the river, representing the emu who drowned. This is the way the Southern Cross and the Milky Way appear in the Gippsland sky together during winter.
When the artist, Alfred, looks at the Southern Cross in the night sky, he thinks of his mother, whose totem was the emu. He thinks of the teacher she is, the knowledge she passed down and her message to protect and look after each other. For Alfred, above all else, this artwork is about a mother’s sacrifice and love.
