The Hunter and Collector

The central figure of Joseph Banks in this linocut is loosely inspired by two prints -a 1773 mezzotint by J R Smith after Benjamin West's portrait of Banks and the 1774 mezzotint by William Dickinson after Joshua Reynolds' portrait. Like the West portrait, in which the figure of Banks is surrounded by ethnographic objects collected on the Endeavour voyage, Rew Hank's Banks is surrounded by a loose iconography of objects with connections to the central subject. Among these are the
eponymous Banksia flowers, May Gibb's wicked 'Banksia Men' and a prickly pear plant, the noxious weed first introduced to Australia at the suggestion of Banks in an attempt to create a local cochineal industry.The greyhounds, rifle and ray refer to Banks' method of collecting fauna specimens, while the skull of a merino sheep refers to Banks' post-exploration occupation as 'Master of the King's Flock'. In a jar can be seen the head of Pemulwuy, a warrior who has come to signify early Indigenous resistance to colonisation, and who participated in an initiation ceremony at yoo-lahng, or Farm Cove (site of the modern Gardens) in 1795. Following his death in 1802, Pemulwuy's head was reportedly decapitated and sent to England to Joseph Banks by t he Governor Philip King. Since lost, it was the subject of repatriation claims by Indigenous Australians, who in 2010 approached Prince William in Sydney advocating for its discovery and return.