Madeleine Stone Forecourt of Parliament House Canberra
19 August 2019
Madeleine Stone standing at the front of the Federal Parliament, the seat of the Australian government, located in Canberra. The Parliament’s forecourt mosaic is based on a design by Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara (born 1946) and is a contemporary depiction of an ancient Western Desert Dreaming. The mosaic is based on Jagamara’s painting ‘Possum and Wallaby Dreaming’, which describes a gathering of a large group of people from the kangaroo, wallaby and goanna ancestors. The groups are meeting to talk and enact ceremonial obligations. Jagamara is a Warlpiri Elder from Papunya, west of Alice Springs. He is one of the foremost proponents of Western Desert painting, one of the first contemporary Indigenous art movements. The 196-square-metre mosaic is located in a ceremonial pool in the forecourt, on an island that symbolises the isolated continent of Australia. The 196-square-metre mosaic symbolises the deep spiritual relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their ancestral land. Fabricated by William McIntosh, Aldo Rossi and Franco Colussi.
- Document type: Photo
- Family group: STONE (John & Harriett)
- People: Franco COLUSSI, Michael Nelson JAGAMARA, William McINTOSH, Aldo ROSSI, Madeleine Antonia STONE
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