Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott’s removal of the Australian coat
of arms from Canberra’s Old Parliament House site in 2002 was a
brazen act of protest, one for which he was eventually found
guilty of ‘theft’ in Australian whitefella law. As an act of
protest and provocation, however, Buzzacott certainly made his
point – that it was indeed he who was provoked by the denial of
Aboriginal sovereignty and spirituality implicit in the
misappropriation of the kangaroo and emu. Danie Mellor may not
be so bold as Buzzacott in his antics but both the artist and
activist reveal a similar spirit of provocation and reclamation,
in this case realised through their focus on native fauna, most
notably the kangaroo. The kangaroo has been a central and
familiar motif in Mellor’s art, initially appearing in the
meticulous drawings and prints through which he first came to
critical attention over a decade ago. In these works the
kangaroo is both a symbol of Indigeneity and Australiana: the
former speaks of Mellor’s own connectio