Joan Ross
The Beginning of Greed, 2023
hand-painted digital print on rag paper
50 x 120 cm (image size)
edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs
BG9771
POA
Joan Ross’ The beginning of greed highlights early effects of colonialism on the environment and First Nations peoples. This work re-imagines & highlights the greed and insensitivity of the colonisers...
Joan Ross’ The beginning of greed highlights early effects of colonialism on the environment and First Nations peoples. This work re-imagines & highlights the greed and insensitivity of the colonisers catching the whole glut of salmon on that day in Kirribilli in 1790 in 2 large nets, whilst the indigenous women look on, catching fish for just their family and cooking on their canoes. The HMS Endeavour eagerly awaits its haul – the first of many acts of greed to come.
Watching from canoes are two female First Nations Australians, including Barangaroo on the left. Barangaroo was one of the more powerful figures in Sydney’s early history. A Cameragaleon woman from the country around North Harbour and Manly, Barangaroo was married to Bennelong, an interlocutor between the Eora and the British.
Eora women were the main food providers for their families, and the staple food source of the coastal people around Sydney was fish. Unlike men, who stood motionless on the shore and speared fish with multi-pronged spears, or fish-gigs (callarr and mooting), Eora women fished from their bark canoes (nowie) with lines and hooks.
Ultimately, this scene represents the beginning of colonial greed.
Source material:
Aboriginal woman in a canoe… attributed to Joseph Tetley, watercolour, circa 1805, State Library of NSW
‘Ban nel long [Bennelong] meeting the Governor by appointment after he was wounded by Willemaring in September 1790’ by The Port Jackson Painter, watercolour, this work shows Governor Arthur Phillip being rowed out to meet Bennelong to attempt a reconciliation after the governor had been gravely wounded by a spear at Manly. Barangaroo is pictured in the second canoe from the left. Watling Collection, Natural History Museum, UK.
Watching from canoes are two female First Nations Australians, including Barangaroo on the left. Barangaroo was one of the more powerful figures in Sydney’s early history. A Cameragaleon woman from the country around North Harbour and Manly, Barangaroo was married to Bennelong, an interlocutor between the Eora and the British.
Eora women were the main food providers for their families, and the staple food source of the coastal people around Sydney was fish. Unlike men, who stood motionless on the shore and speared fish with multi-pronged spears, or fish-gigs (callarr and mooting), Eora women fished from their bark canoes (nowie) with lines and hooks.
Ultimately, this scene represents the beginning of colonial greed.
Source material:
Aboriginal woman in a canoe… attributed to Joseph Tetley, watercolour, circa 1805, State Library of NSW
‘Ban nel long [Bennelong] meeting the Governor by appointment after he was wounded by Willemaring in September 1790’ by The Port Jackson Painter, watercolour, this work shows Governor Arthur Phillip being rowed out to meet Bennelong to attempt a reconciliation after the governor had been gravely wounded by a spear at Manly. Barangaroo is pictured in the second canoe from the left. Watling Collection, Natural History Museum, UK.