October 2023

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Warlawoon – Kathy Ramsay

“This painting is about the Warlawoon Country my dad Rammey Ramsay country my beautiful old artist dad who left his memory with me to carry on after him.

Trees, camping areas, water holes, hills, and traditional stories of his mum and dad and their parents and so on he told me.” Kathy Ramsay

Kathy Ramsay is the oldest daughter of the late senior Gija man of Jungoora skin, Rammay Ramsay, whose ancestral Country lies to the west of Bedford Downs near Elgee Cliffs. Following in her father’s foorsteps., her work is forever infused with the memory of Warlawoon Country. Together with a longing for Country, their work teases out the complexities of Gija world-views and the impact of pastoral occupation on their land.

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Purnululu – Bungle Bungles

This painting shows the country that Craiglyn’s grandmother comes from, Purnululu. It is also the country of her son, renowned Warmun artist Jack Britten. Purnululu ( The Bungle Bungles) is located 55 kms south west of the Warmun Community. It is a significant point of reference for many Gija people and has many sacred places located within its striped domes. Craiglyn paints this country using a strong sense of design.

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Red Butte

Red Butte is a hill which lies at the start of Jarlalu (the Ord River) on Texas Downs Station. There is a cave in Red Butte where a juwarri (witch) lives. She was a girl called Gudbarriyal who ran away from Lissadell Station. She went wangala (mad) when she was out hunting for sugarbag (wild honey) and never went back to the station. The station managers couldn’t catch her and she was seen a number of times and said to have horns growing out of her head.

Jane’s father, Rover Thomas, worked for many years on Texas Downs as a stockman.

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Dayiwul Ngarranggarni – Geraldine Bedford

Geraldine’s aunty Lena Nyadbi told her this story and now Geraldine is the custodian.

 

Women travelled up river placing a spinifex net across the water to catch Dayiwul (Barramundi). Halfway to Gawinji the women stopped and left the net at this place; it turned to stone. This place was destroyed when the Argyle Diamond Mine was first cut. Nyadbi says there was a soak where Gija people used to dig down into the ground for water when other waterholes had dried up. The diamonds mined today are the scales of the barramundi who jumped through the range to escape capture. She saw the net they had placed in the river and jumped over it. These sites have been destroyed by the pit of the mine.

 

Bedford has made this work to remember the country before the mine and to pass these stories and history on to her children and grandchildren.

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Dayiwul Ngarranggarni – Geraldine Bedford

Geraldine’s aunty Lena Nyadbi told her this story and now Geraldine is the custodian.

 

Women travelled up river placing a spinifex net across the water to catch Dayiwul (Barramundi). Halfway to Gawinji the women stopped and left the net at this place; it turned to stone. This place was destroyed when the Argyle Diamond Mine was first cut. Nyadbi says there was a soak where Gija people used to dig down into the ground for water when other waterholes had dried up. The diamonds mined today are the scales of the barramundi who jumped through the range to escape capture. She saw the net they had placed in the river and jumped over it. These sites have been destroyed by the pit of the mine.

 

Bedford has made this work to remember the country before the mine and to pass these stories and history on to her children and grandchildren.

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My Birthplace

This painting is about a place at Alice Downs Station, Eileen’s birthplace, right next to this beautiful big boab tree near the creek there. The Boab we are born under then becomes our tree. We all have our special Boab tree. 

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Ngaginyji Joomooloony

This painting is about Joomena’s Ngaginyji Joomooloony, her boab tree. “The boab tree we are born under becomes our special tree for life; this one is Ngaginyji Joomooloony, which means ‘My Boabtree'” 

 

Eileen Bray Joomena was born on the side of a dusty highway along the road from Alice Downs Station to Old river and next to the creek that runs into Alice Downs. The family had ventured out on a fishing trip when Eileen’s mum went into labour and was ‘laid down, with her sisters in law’, under a big boab tree and gave birth. The women stayed there, under this boab for a week as is customary, until all were ready to go back to camp.

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