AM 18764/21

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 artifacts 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 mental and painting with air brush as a panel beater; and by 1974 he was painting watercolours and photorealist 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.