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.