Reg Pengarte / Bush Tucker – Kangaroo (REG17)

Born in 1966, Reg Pengarte is an artist who depicts stories from the Roper River region of the Northern Territory. Reg depicts familiar Australian animals from the region, which were hunted traditionally by Reg’s ancestors. These include kangaroos, birds, reptiles, fish and turtles. In each of his artworks, Reg also depicts the weapons the animals were hunted with, such as the boomerang or spear.

Reg typically paints in a cross-hatching style, which is commonly associated with artists from the top end of Australia. Traditionally known as ‘rarrking’, the detailed cross-hatching that is often depicted in his paintings is his family’s sacred body paint designs that belong only within his family group. Reg primarily uses neutral colours, such as blacks, whites and reds, which are representative of customary ochre earth pigments.

These Dreaming stories have complex cultural meanings and are an important source of inspiration, knowledge and unchallengeable sacred authority in Aboriginal Australia, while also seamlessly connecting past and present through acts of ritual and ceremony. Passing down these vital stories and ancestral history, Reg remembers and perpetuates his ancestry and culture through his artistic practice. Whether painted in their figurative form or represented symbolically, the depiction of animals in Aboriginal art is highly significant. Beyond their value as a food source, animals serve as cultural images of totemic power which are used to demonstrate connection to country and the ongoing presence of the ancestors/ancestral beings. As with songlines, animal tracks such as Budgerigar, Possum, and Emu are used to map country and delineate custodial responsibilities, laws and ancestry.