This is my great-great-great-uncle William Taylor's powder horn (made from bovine horn), painted alongside a broken anvil most likely used by Victorian Aboriginal people of the Dja Dja Wurrung language group. According to family legend, William lived in a cave in Baynton (Victoria, Australia) on what is now known as Taylor's Hill. Apparently getting back to nature was thought to be a cure for the chronic arthritis from which he suffered. The broken anvil was found by my father at nearby Pipers Creek; it was broken and disturbed from its resting place in the soil as a result of ploughing.
I've painted these two objects together as they represent--for me--the often violent colonial past of my ancestors, alongside the injured and yet resilient people they displaced.
Oil on canvas board, 6" x 4"
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