Australian Bandit

Acrylic and Oil Pastel on canvas 

81CM W x 101.5CM H

An Aboriginal man on horseback in an Adidas tracksuit. At first glance he looks like the outlaw, but he isn’t the bandit. He is on his own land. This is a modern folktale about who gets cast as the outsider, and who truly belongs.

When I was a kid in primary school, my first real friend was an Aboriginal boy. The white kids didn’t want me. Maybe they could already tell I wasn’t the right kind of white. He was kind, and we played together every day. We were just little kids, both marked as different, and we found friendship in that space. That memory has never left me.

The tracksuit is a nod to my Polish roots. I grew up as the child of immigrants, watching my father try so hard to assimilate. He called everyone 'mate' in his thick accent, only to be treated like he didn’t belong. We are not the same, and I know we are guests on this land. The truth is, the real bandits were the immigrants, not the people who have always been here.

I have never been anything but welcomed by Aboriginal people. Never by white settlers. That respect runs deep in me, and this work is about honouring that.

Australian Bandit is a story of belonging, of friendship, of false labels and true strength.