Mother and Child Echidna

Roderick Holt

Rod’s artistic talent was first discovered in prison, but his love of drawing started from an early age and continues to be a big part of his life and spirituality.

Rod is from the Kunja Aboriginal people. The snake and goannas in his work represent his father’s totems. Rod’s technique is to generally put down a base colour, followed by a sketch and then a top layer of paint. He likes to work in stages; “I look at it, stand back, new ideas come … I work out the colours and what I need to do with them”.

Art is a spiritual pursuit for Rod. “My paintings are totem-style paintings of my heritage on my father’s side. It’s like my religion. When I was in jail we had pastors and preachers and I’d be sitting there painting, and when they asked what I was doing I’d say ‘this is my religion, this is what I do’. Painting keeps me calm, away from the bad stuff in jail … it’s a bit of an escape.”

Read more about Rod here.