Kids' Audio Guide: The Founding of Australia

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The Founding of Australia

A painting depicting group of uniformed colonists raise and salute the Union Jack.

The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th, 1788 by Algernon Talmage R.A.

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GEORGIA_190923.mp3

Transcript

I chose this picture because in class we were learning about the First Fleet and I was really interested. Most of the people in this picture are officers, but it’s not telling the whole story.

If I had a paintbrush, I would add the other ships and convicts, the 191 women, 568 men and 13 children convicts, who had been suffering in horrendous conditions on the First Fleet. The seas had been rough, and the convicts were very sick because they were not treated well. It would take a long time to paint all of those people into the picture.

I would definitely add the Gadigal people who belonged to the land they called Gadi. They were probably thinking, “who are these people, why are they here, this is our land not theirs”. The British were not nice to the Aboriginal people and stole their land.

I can’t see many boats from the First Fleet or any of the convicts. There were also hundreds of soldiers and sailors who aren’t shown. I think the artist simplified a very important moment in our history. It makes me wonder why the artist did that? Maybe the artist did that, so the image wasn’t too crowded or maybe he wanted to show an important part of how it happened in a simple way.

This painting was painted in 1938, so the artist painted what he thought happened, not what actually happened. It was painted to celebrate the 150th birthday of Australia.

Why do you think the artist left so many things out in this picture?

Curators/Speakers

Georgia