GORDON SYRON - FEATHER FOOT

 GORDON SYRON
FEATHER FOOT,  2003
181 x 181 cm
Oil in canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Redfern Sydney, NSW
Private CollectionCooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
No Trees & Here Comes The Redcoat is a cry for the environment. Australia's fragile ecosystem is a delicate balance and the clearing of the land of it's emu population greatly affected Aboriginal people. (Syron remembers his Grandmother telling him she remembers emu birds everywhere when she grew up at Forester-Tuncurry.) The emu is very important to Aboriginal people. The Featherfoot or Cleverfoot can carry messages from one area to another. The Kadachi Man is very powerful and wears emu feathers on his feet. "I gave the emu human characteristics because the emu is so dignified and protects his young at all costs". The male emu sits on the eggs and raises the young alone. "Some Aboriginal men have forgotten this instinctive quality and I wanted to encourage them & to remind them, to become stronger to protect their women and children, as the emu doe