Camel train
$2,250.00
I learnt to make bush toys from my uncle in Santa Teresa. My family and uncles were stockmen. They used to travel around with horses, so we made horses and camels and all sorts of things for bush toys. That was a long time ago now, more than 30 years.
Then, when I moved to Titjikala with my family, I kept making those bush toys. Me and David Wallace, we would collect old wires, anything from the tip to make them up. I have a room where I work on weekends and in my spare time, thatʼs what I love to do.
Johnny Young grew up on the mission at Santa Teresa, now known as Ltyentye Apurte. As a young man he was employed as a stockman breaking in horses and camels and began working with leather, making functional pieces for saddlery and craft. In his spare time Johnny created bush toys from wire, scrap metal and other salvaged materials. His first adult work was a small version of a football field, complete with players made from horseshoe nails.
His subjects range from cowboys and rodeo riders to camels, cameleers and motorbikes. Figurines are constructed from recycled copper wires wound tightly together, and then dressed using a range of found and salvaged items. Johnny’s artwork reveals a deep love of station life and invites us to look at the social history of the region in which Aboriginal people have been central to the pastoral industry for generations.
