The Museum of Australian Democracy acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

The museum respectfully acknowledges the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.

xClose
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • About
  • Blog
  • Prime Ministers
  • Websites
  • Venue hire
  • Visiting
  • What's On
  • Collection
  • Learning
  • Democracy
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • Visiting
    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library
  • What’s On
    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Collection
    • The Building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Oral Histories
  • Learning
    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents
  • Democracy
    • Democracy 2025
    • Defining democracy
    • Australian democracy: an overview
    • The democratic audit of Australia
    • One thing I like about democracy
    • Links
    • Quotes
    • Notes
    • About
    • Blog
    • Prime Ministers
    • Websites
    • Venue hire
    From the blog

    Artists and activists: The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray

    5 minute read

    Mon 4 Jul 2016 by
    Libby Stewart
    • collection
    • Indigenous
    • reconciliation

    For NAIDOC week this year we have decided to shine a spotlight on the Indigenous artist Lin Onus. He, together with his non-Indigenous collaborator Michael Eather, and his son Tiriki, have produced a series of remarkable artworks, The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray. The museum recently acquired a full set of high quality prints of this work and is proud to showcase them here.

    • Michael and I are just slipping down the pub for a minute, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from the ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      1 of 8

      Michael and I are just slipping down the pub for a minute, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • X & Ray discover Father's Country Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      2 of 8

      X & Ray discover Father's Country Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • You haven't seen my keys have you Mick? Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000
      3 of 8

      You haven't seen my keys have you Mick? Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • Still looking, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      4 of 8

      Still looking, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • From the adventures of X & Ray, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      5 of 8

      From the adventures of X & Ray, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • New age toas... new age guys Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000
      6 of 8

      New age toas... new age guys Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • X & Ray witness the sinking of the last ship carrying woodchips from Australian shores, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      7 of 8

      X & Ray witness the sinking of the last ship carrying woodchips from Australian shores, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • X & Ray in the Garden of Earthly Delights, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
      8 of 8

      X & Ray in the Garden of Earthly Delights, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    • Michael and I are just slipping down the pub for a minute, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from the ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
    • X & Ray discover Father's Country Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
    • You haven't seen my keys have you Mick? Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000
    • Still looking, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
    • From the adventures of X & Ray, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
    • New age toas... new age guys Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000
    • X & Ray witness the sinking of the last ship carrying woodchips from Australian shores, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.
    • X & Ray in the Garden of Earthly Delights, Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions, from ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000.

    Lin Onus was an artist whose two and three dimensional works feature in galleries around Australia and overseas. He was the son of William (Bill) Onus, an artist and activist who was prominent in the Aborigines Progressive Association in the 1930s and 1940s. Bill Onus became disillusioned with formal politics and turned to art in the 1950s, establishing the business Aboriginal Enterprise Novelties and producing hand decorated boomerangs, pottery and other items. Lin grew up surrounded by his father’s work, becoming an artist himself but imbued with his father’s strong social conscience and political values. Lin’s friend, Aboriginal activist Gary Foley, remembers that Onus

    was an artist first and a politician second … he expressed himself through his art, and in doing so created some of the most powerful political statements of his era.

    Lin Onus met fellow artist and collaborator, Michael Eather, in 1987 in Maningrida (Arnhem Land). Their series of artworks, The Adventures of X & Ray, grew out of their friendship and shared assumptions. Described by Eather, these were:

    … a general spirit of open handed collaboration, regularly sharing ideas, studio techniques, whacky humour, as well as having a mutual commitment for the wider awareness of Indigenous sensibilities, and the role artists might play in this.

    In the late 1980s Lin Onus was inspired by fibreglass and latex stingrays being produced by Eather, creating his own three dimensional fibreglass dingoes. His Dingo series was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 1989. In 1992 the stingray and dingo characters were united in the illustrative concept The Adventures of X & Ray. They became an unlikely pair of travel companions — ‘X’ the stingray and ‘Ray’ the Dingo — with the two animals performing social, moral and political roles as they travel to places where Lin and Michael had been, or inhabiting fictionalised landscapes.

    The first work in the series, titled Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute, features an ochre-striped dingo surfing on a cross-hatched stingray, both atop a wave inspired by a famous wave created as a woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai. It reveals the sense of kinship between the two travellers and the importance of narrative and humour. Lin created five more works in the series in 1993, and after his death in 1996 his son Tiriki worked with Michael to extend the series to eight works, renaming it The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray. They also produced life sized Dingo and stingray fibreglass sculptures.

    The friendship between Lin Onus and Michael Eather is clearly evident in this series; the works are subtly political but gently whimsical and humorous as well. The last word on Lin comes from Michael himself:

    The brilliance of Lin Onus was that marvellous anecdotal humour that crosses cultural boundaries — retelling a story with a wry Koori twist! This wit continues with Tiriki … who has in effect taken up where his father left off, proving that these stories and obligations are never ending, never belonging to one person, always rotating.

    5 minute read

    Mon 4 Jul 2016 by
    Libby Stewart
    • collection
    • Indigenous
    • reconciliation
    X & Ray witness the sinking of the last ship carrying woodchips from Australian shores [detail],
Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    X & Ray witness the sinking of the last ship carrying woodchips from Australian shores [detail], Lin Onus and Mandjad Productions ‘The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray’, 2000. Museum of Australian Democracy Collection and Fireworks Gallery.

    Libby Stewart is the Senior Historian at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Canberra. She was previously a historian at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. She has curated exhibitions and published in the areas of the representation of women leaders in museums, Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and Australian nurses in the First World War.

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

    Visiting

    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library

    What's On

    • Events
    • Exhibitions

    Collection

    • The building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Highlights
    • Oral histories

    Learning

    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents

    Democracy

    • Exploring democracy
    • Documenting a democracy
    • Australian democracy
    • Defining democracy
    • Democracy 2025

    About

    • OPH Board
    • Annual Reports
    • Budget
    • Corporate documents
    • Disability Inclusion Action Plan
    • Employment
    • Freedom of information
    • Public Interest Disclosure
    • Media
    • Newsletter
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Our prime minister patrons
    • Donate to our collection
    • eCommerce terms and conditions
    • Online house rules

    Blog

    Prime Ministers

    Websites

    Further information

    View our recruitment opportunities.

    View our copyright policy.

    View our privacy statement.

    View our ticketing terms and conditions.

    Questions about the website:
    website@moadoph.gov.au

    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts