Post colonial: return to sender

There he is again, waving to us on the flyer for the latest exhibition at the Museum of Sydney. Bungaree's bare footed rehearsals have gone centre stage. The court jester has become king. But let us not confuse art with life or present desires with past intentions: this is a painting by Augustus Earle, an itinerant artist of Empire whose intent, surely, was to parody Bungaree's antics in order to affirm colonialism's moral legitimacy. But the larrikin presence of Bungaree in the poster belies this historical reading. Who then do we side with: Earle or Bungaree? Do we make an historical reading which gives precedence to Earle's intent, or follow our postcolonial intuition which sees, in Earle's parody, Bungaree's parody of colonial ritual?