Here, Tony Albert contrasts the strength and dignity implied by the word ‘hunter’ with a debased view of Aboriginal people and culture as represented by the kitsch tourist souvenir-ware featuring ‘portrait’ heads.

Albert collected similar material as a boy and uses its familiarity to many Australians as a means of engaging serious thinking on racist discrimination against Aboriginal people. In this context, the word ‘hunter’ implies the Aboriginal hunter of pre-settlement Australia, the hunter of Aboriginal people on the colonial frontier and the artist himself as a collector of these wares. The white plastic ‘alien’ head on the letter ‘H’ is Albert’s signature reference – intended as a symbol of cultural alienation and displacement by Aboriginal people within Australian society.