Totems 

Jacqueline Hick’s “Totems” presents us with a complex interplay of identity and cultural symbols. Hick was an Australian artist whose life spanned much of the 20th century, she was creating art during a time when Australia was grappling with its colonial past and its relationship with its Indigenous population. In this piece, Hick positions a young Aboriginal boy amidst a series of totemic structures, rendered in a way that feels both intimate and distanced. The totems, traditionally symbols of ancestral connection and identity, are depicted with a modernist sensibility, abstracted and somewhat obscured. The boy’s gaze, averted from the viewer, suggests a sense of introspection. Hick lived and worked in a society marked by deep racial divides and a complex history of dispossession. She was quoted as saying "Painting is not separate from life. It is one." “Totems” invites us to reflect on how cultural symbols are interpreted across different perspectives and how personal identity is shaped by historical context. It encourages a dialogue about representation, cultural heritage, and the ongoing negotiation of identity in post-colonial Australia.