"This is all Australia has left of my people." Anthony Martin Fernando. Australia House, London, 1929 (2008)


Antique majolica figurine, bone skeletons, epoxy resin, re-touching medium, powder pigments.

This work is centered on Aboriginal activist Anthony Martin Fernando who ended up in the United Kingdom during the 1920s. He was a vagrant, and a very intelligent and articulate man who was extremely aware of the terrible plight of his people at the time. To make money he used to carve little toy skeletons and pin them to his coat and walk around the streets of London selling them. Fernando would go and stand outside Australia House and say to anyone who would listen ‘this is all Australia has left of my people’.