Goose Camp Kakadu: moonrise at sunset (hand-coloured)

Visiting Kakadu was an experience of a lifetime. First Nations women shared their culture at Goose Camp, preparing and cooking magpie geese in the coals. Deafening flocks of geese flew overhead. While we were helping to pluck the birds, we saw the extraordinary phenomenon of the full moon rising on one side of the lake as the sun was setting on the other.

To execute GooseCamp Kakadu:Moonrise at Sunset took months for me to work out the composition. Carving the block felt like it was taking me forever because the patterns of airflow in the sky were particularly difficult to carve. They represent the encroaching darkness and the disturbed areas are meant to convey the sound of the magpiegeese flapping their wings in the stillness. The sound of the honking goose is implied by the horn-shaped trachea carried by the woman on the left (the male’s trachea is a coiled instrument that can reach up to 150cm in length). Mother and daughter prepare to cook magpie-geese in the ashes. Both figures are repeated from 3 different viewpoints. The mother plucks and cuts the geese and carries the trachea, while her daughter, in the middle sears the geese in the fire. I was inspired by the humility of these gentle women, their connection to the land and their respect for nature.