Muster Mum

The ABC’s Muster Dogs Series 2 featured my sister Cilla Pershouse as one of five people selected to train an Australian Bordie Collie pup from a carefully bred litter.
Cilla undertook this challenge with a baby and two toddlers in tow. I feel it took enormous courage to let the cameras into her life and be vulnerable on national television about the intense challenges that come with motherhood. Cilla shared with the audience a side of life in the bush that is not always visible. The really powerful thing is that perhaps the demands of motherhood supersede the city country divide and there are women everywhere who are grappling to maintain a sense of identity in the face of being Mum! ……Mum! …..MUUUM!
I was thrilled when Cilla agreed to sit for me. The painting also was done with three toddlers in tow so there are three toddler handprints in the foreground to illustrate that layer of hard!