Gorden Bennett

The 1970’s tended to be a political decade. Many artists, writers and film-makers turned their attention to raising the publics political consciousness through their particular media whether the issue was feminism, politics, war, the environment, political persecution or aboriginal land rights, the arts generally became a powerful and potent voice which informed, educated and even outraged.
There is no question that the Australian Aborigines have suffered tremendously since the arrival of Europeans. Heavily endowed with strict religious beliefs and perceptions of white superiority, the Europeans attempted to educate, eradicate and infiltrate the indigenous population. It is Queensland painter Gordon Bennett’s desire to rewrite or re-paint the true course of Australian history.

Although Bennett’s aboriginality is important to him, he prefers to be thought of as an Australian artist. Bennett only discovered he was aboriginal when he was eleven His work is political- it is bo...