Historical information

Lin ONUS (1948-1996)
Language: Wiradjuri / Yorta Yorta

Lin Onus played a pivotal role in the recognition of Aboriginal art as an expression of a contemporary and dynamic living culture. Prior to his premature death at just 47 years of age he was a prominent, strident, yet non-confrontational agent in renegotiating the history of colonial and Aboriginal Australia. His father, Bill Onus, was the founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League in Victoria and a prominent maker of artefacts in Melbourne. As a young Koori growing up, Lin lived in a cultural environment that included exposure to visiting Aboriginal artists, including Albert Namatjira. He began his artistic life assisting his father in decorating artifacts, went on to develop skills working with metal and painting with air brush as a panel beater; and by 1974 he was painting watercolors and photo-realist landscapes. In the 1970's he completed a set of paintings on the first Aboriginal guerrilla fighter Mosquito, which holds pride of place on the walls of the Advancement League in Melbourne, to this day.

Lin Onus was a largely self-taught artist. Particularly important in his development was his visits to Garmedi (Arnhem Land) starting in 1986. Jack Wunuwun, the Yolngu artist, introduced him into the Murrungun-Djinang clan and gave him permission to use some of traditional images in his paintings. His cultural education on the Aboriginal side was also provided by visits to Cummeragunja with his father, and stories told by his uncle Aaron Briggs, known as 'the old man of the forest' who gave him his Koori name - Burrinja, meaning 'star'. They would sit on the banks of the Murray River within view of the Barmah Forest, Lin's spiritual home, the subject of many of his later paintings and his final resting place. Lin's father had been of the Yorta Yorta people from the Barmah Forest country, and Lin also used images from this area in his paintings. The images in his works include haunting photorealist portrayals of the Barmah red gum forests of his father's ancestral country, and the use of rarrk cross-hatching-based based painting style that he learned (and was given permission to use when in Arnhemland). His painting Barmah Forest won Canberra's national Aboriginal Heritage Award in 1994. (http://www.cooeeart.com.au/aboriginal_artist/lin_onus/A, accessed 18 May 2015)

This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.

Physical description

Framed limited edition silkscreen.

Inscriptions & markings

Signed 'Onus' lower right (posthumously by Tiriki Onus)

Edition 68/80