Heroes of Colonial Encounters
Artist
Helen S Tiernan
(born 1952)
Date2017
Object numberV00055135
NamePainting
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 365 × 262 × 20 mm
Copyright© Helen S Tiernan
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionBased on well-known historic portraits, in this assembly the artist combines European heroes such as Cook, Banks, Bligh, Phillip and Flinders with their Indigenous contemporaries - Bennelong, Bungaree, Truganini, Colby, Bidgee Bidgee and Ballodere representing the figures now as equals - no longer separated by European colonial ideas that cast Indigenous people as 'Primitives'.SignificanceArtist Helen Tiernan's painting 'Heroes of Colonial Encounters' is significant as an example of modern re-interpretation of colonial history from an Indigenous perspective.
