Messmate at the Shack
$6,500.00
‘Messmate at the Shack’
Bunurong
Gidja Walker
acrylic, grass tree sap & ink on recycled canvas
123 x 91cm
I used to go to the shack to sleep and dream. Embraced by the old messmate with its roots below and the canopy above I felt safe… connected.
On the night of a thousand moths my son was born there at dawn.
My daughter and step-son delighted in jumping off the roof on the swing but were less keen on the outside pit dunny.
The bath was outside too and heated with an electric element, the door was always open and the billy was always on. At night a myriad of interesting insects would flutter round the lights.
In the late summer season the Hyacinth orchids would burst out of the bull ant nest at the base of the old tree; White-throated Treecreepers climbed its trunk while the noisy Rosellas dropped Messmate seed and leaf gall remains on the tin roof. A Grey Shrike-thrush called while the echidna nosed around.
It still stands, over 30 years older but the same familiar shape and feel.
In stock
