He was largely a self-taught urban artist who, after being expelled from Balwyn High School for fighting,[3] became a mechanic and spray painter,[4] before making artefacts for the tourist market with his father's business, Aboriginal Enterprise Novelties.
[6] The works of Onus often involve symbolism from Aboriginal styles of painting, along with recontextualisation of contemporary artistic elements.
The images in his works include haunting portrayals of the Barmah red gum forests of his father's ancestral country, and the use of rarrk cross-hatching-based painting style that he learnt (and was given permission to use)[7] when visiting the Indigenous communities of Maningrida in 1986.
The painting is of a dingo riding on the back of a stingray which is meant to symbolise his mother's and father's cultures combining in reconciliation.
Curated by Margo Neale and organised by the Queensland Art Gallery, it was developed before his death and staged with the assistance of his family.