Other law-themed artworks

  • Public Hall, above ramp to Level 3
  • Rosella NAMOK
  • born 1979 Lockhart River Queensland
  • Today now…we all got to go by same laws
  • 2003
  • acrylic on canvas
  • 'Today now…we all got to go by same laws' was the winner of the High Court Centenary Art Prize run in conjunction with the Australian Bar Association for the centenary of the Court, 6 October 2003; Collection of the High Court of Australia

This work, 'Today now…we all got to go by same laws' was the winner of the High Court Centenary Art Prize run in conjunction with the Australian Bar Association for the centenary of the Court, 6 October 2003.

This series of nine painted panels that comprise the High Court work employs the technique for which Rosella Namok is best known – the underpainting of colours that merge with each other resulting in a striated background, into which she then works the patterns of the subject often using her fingers. Namok explains her work, Today now… as follows:

When I look in the middle … it's hard, hard for me to think, to talk 'proper English'.

Look inside middle … before time … then go look, go outside … that's Australia today.

Inside middle … before time … there was strong law. People … they would know what way they belong … it was really strong those days … strong … tradition … culture … people … country … law. Strong and straight … everyone knew it … everyone followed it.

Then other people came from all over the world … every place different … got own laws … own culture.

Today now … we all got to go by same laws … but … that traditional law … it's still there underneath.

About the artist

  • Rosella Namok was born in 1979 in the Lockhart River region of Cape York Peninsula, far north Queensland, in the Aankum language group. She gained recognition for her talent as an artist in her late teens while working at the Lockhart River Art Centre managed by Fran and Geoff Barker, with a group of young artists – ‘The Art Gang’. These artists also included Patrick Butcher, Adrian King, Fiona Omeenyo and Silas Hobson, amongst others. A number of experienced and talented printmakers began to visit the Art Centre in the 1990s and through printmaking workshops, fostered the young artists. The Art Centre quickly became well-known for the colourful, fresh and vibrant prints that emerged.

    Rosella Namok was only 24 years old when she won the High Court Centenary Art Prize in 2003. She was already the recipient of a number of prestigious awards such as the Australian Centenary Medal in 2003, the Lin Onus Youth Award in the 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards in 2000, and the Rena Ellen Jones Award, for a screenprint in 1998. Namok is based in Cairns. Her paintings have become very popular and have been exhibited and collected widely within Australia and overseas.