Gina Rinehart’s own creativity revisited as she attacks Namatjira’s portrait

Do you remember Gina Rinehart's poem 'Our Future'? Here it is, for those who missed it when it first came out.
Image is an older white woman with shoulder length hair and grey at the temples. She wears a pearl necklace and a V white scoop neck top with a grey leaf pattern on it and is looking off to the right. The portrait, among two other works of Gina Rinehart, are reproduced in Vincent Namatjira's monograph. Image: Supplied, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

In the wake of the recent news story of one artist’s creativity being questioned: Gina Rinehart pressures NGA to remove portrait by Vincent Namatjira – now the whole net is searching for it, ArtsHub decided to dig up Rinehart’s own creative endeavour, by way of her foray into poetry. It’s titled ‘Our Future’ for those who have not yet come across it.

Composed in 2012, this poem, comprising eight rhyming couplets, was written as a rallying call for minerals to be dug out of the earth with as little tax possible. It was Rinehart’s response to the introduction of the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) and was subsequently engraved on a plaque, before being affixed to an iron ore boulder. It sits as an outdoor artwork in Rinehart’s home state of Western Australia.

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Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy