Emu Dreaming [carved emu egg on stand]

Ngarrindjeri/Kokatha artist and elder Bluey Roberts has powerfully entwined two cultural traditions in this work of art. Recognised for his eye for detail and skilful carving, Roberts has inscribed the emu egg with imagery that celebrates the bird itself. The art of egg carving has a long history, with European traditions of the carving and mounting of ostrich eggs dating to at least the sixteenth century, while Aboriginal peoples’ cultural use of the emu egg is believed to date back millennia. Like the ostrich egg, the emu egg possesses talismanic properties, promising good fortune.

Roberts’s crafting of the stand references and remakes the European tradition – a tradition seen particularly in the work of Northern European artisans who migrated to South Australia, including Julius Schomburgk and Henry Steiner – of mounting the egg as part of an epergne or table feature. In his work Roberts fuses colonial representations with traditional knowledge, making a work that is at once traditional and contemporary, in the process reframing colonisation.

Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs