Ah bolla my babies
2018

• John Prince Siddon

John Prince Siddon’s psychedelic, surrealist paintings bring some of the most urgent themes of our time into piercing view. Combining Australian narratives, current affairs and narrangkarni (ancestral creation stories), his paintings articulate the complexities of the present-day Australian experience. In this work, Siddon unpacks the difficulties and unsatisfactory care options faced by families with children with disabilities in remote communities. Indigenous people in Australia experience significantly higher rates of disability, with the prevalence double that of the non-Indigenous population. Though numbers are high, there remains limited access to culturally safe services, often leading to systematic abandonment or the forced removal of families from Country.