MAN OF THE PEOPLE

 

Wenton Rubuntja was noted not only for his artistic talent, but also for the steps he took towards repairing Aboriginal rights in Australia. Rubuntja was well noted for being a talented artists in various mediums that reflected traditional values and themes: "Doesn't matter what sort of painting we do in this country, it still belongs to the people, all the people. This is worship, work, culture. It's all Dreaming. There are two ways of painting. Both ways are important, because that's culture." – (The Weekend Australian Magazine, April, 2002)

W. was a man of great generosity in both his personal and political life. He “brought up” generations of young non-indigenous workers engaged by the various central Australian organizations, teaching them about matters such as appropriate etiquette, traditional law, and the economics and politics of daily Aboriginal life. It was commonplace, too, for him to return from a distant meeting to spend many hours solving the problems of a local community member, finding money for food, tracking down a missing relative or fixing a dispute that to anyone else seemed intractable.

Rubuntja developed a highly refined view of reconciliation. The belief that the Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal communities have 'to interpret each other' recurs throughout his life’s work. His ability to integrate Indigenous and non-Indigenous concepts was truly remarkable. He recognized the importance of working out a process through which people could live harmoniously together, and saw this as only possible if each “side” gave equal recognition to the importance of the Law of the other:

“We can’t fall in the power to the other Law. They can’t change our Law, our side, and we can’t change their side, or we will break our Law again, and they’ll break their law…… The Dreaming is really all over Australia. We must teach the white fellas.”

Further Reading:

His autobiography The Town Grew Up Dancing: The Life and Art of W...... Rubuntja was published in 2002.