A River

The painting, titled 'A River' (acrylic on paper laid on canvas) was painted by Geoff Todd in 2014 in honour of the Aboriginal elder, William Cooper. It depicts William Cooper sitting at the river's mouth; the river appears to be flowing from his blue tie; Churchill and a blond female diner sips on champagne in oblivion to the bodies floating in the water.

At a time when Aboriginal people were denied citizenship and other basic human rights, William Cooper, an Elder of the Yorta Yorta nation, was moved to action when he heard news of 'Kristallnacht'. On 6 December 1938, aged 77, he led a delegation of the Australian Aborigines’ League to the German consulate in Melbourne. They were refused entry but Cooper’s petition on behalf of the Aborigines of Australia protested "the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany."

For the artist, the river’s ability to “wash away evidence” alludes to denial of the Holocaust to this day. The element of denial is also represented by the main image of Cooper being laid over the top of writing to ensure it is unread - which at the time became the fate of the petition.

The artist, Geoff Todd, was born in Melbourne in 1950. After teaching in Victoria he travelled across Australia to Maningrida in Arnhem Land where he worked with Aboriginal artists. Along with many public and private collectors of his work, in Australia he is represented in the public collections of Canberra’s Australian National Gallery, the Australian National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria, the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and other regional and international institutions. In 2019 he was awarded an AM for significant services to art and sculpture.