AS THE MOVEMENT to actively recognise and remember the contributions of women continues apace worldwide, it is fitting to first look at Destiny Deacon’s Eva Johnson, writer (1994). In this work, Deacon, an accomplished KuKu and Erub/Mer artist, honours Johnson, a Malak Malak woman, acclaimed activist, poet, actor, director and playwright who has written about land rights, Stolen Generations and Aboriginal women’s rights and was named Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 1985. In Deacon’s portrait, Johnson, who was taken from her family and Country as a child of the Stolen Generations, adopts the pose of a young Aboriginal man in a painting by J.M. Crossland, Portrait of Nannultera, a Young Poonindie Crickete r (1854). Deacon felt sorry for this young man dressed like an English cricketer, trapped in a…
