Kangaroos: The survivors (2019) Painting by Susan Willemse

This artwork was created before the 2019/2020 bush fires started in Australia. These Kangaroos had survived the annual kangaroo cull and the original photography referenced was of Mom and baby roo huddled together in icy winter conditions but I knew that they had drought, fires, heat waves, cold, floods and more to survive not just the cull, hence the title. It is ironic that the ice turned to fire in creating this painting just as the landscape they live in this year burnt for months uncontrolled resulting in the world’s worse pollution which in turn caused micro-climate hail storms as well. Maybe my GUT instinct was saying the fuel loading, cost savings and drought was bad in 2019 and without a paid fire fighting crew to do valuable work pre fire season disaster was around the corner. I am glad these two kangaroos survived but many people were affected by the fires too both directly and with cancer caused by the pollution later, firefighters, citizens and the artist included among them. I am happy to say I am a survivor too and look forward to progress on fire prevention and fighting not just watching in Australia in the future as well as preventative cancer screening to help others survive as well. Sadly Australia removed the cervical cancer Pap screening in 2017 as not cost effective and built palliative hospitals instead, something the artist had worked in for over 31 years, as a breast cancer survivor she is happy they didn't remove the radiologists that screen for that type of cancer! Urinary cancer is the type many volunteer fire fighters will be exposed to while breathing in these carcinogenic fumes. Certainly removing gums from urban areas and leaf and litter debris will help prevent these fires and loss of life going forward. Dedicated to the many survivors of fire both human and animal.

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KanagroosFireAustraliaCancerSurvivors