November 2025

Fishing at Japulu

“I paint about fish, stingray and crab. I paint any kind of fish.  I use blue, green, white and purple to represent the water. We catch fish to cook up and eat. When we get fish, we also share it with families. People are happy to receive it and to eat it. One time I caught a big salmon at Japulu beach, straight down from Bidyadanga. That was the biggest fish I ever caught. I cooked it up on the fire.”

– Tamara Hunter

Japulu beach got its name from the old priest at La Grange Mission because he used to walk down there. It is close to Bidyadanga Community and is an easy walk or drive away. The beach is a special place for fishing, swimming, and spending time with family. For Tamara, it carries good memories of catching and cooking fish, and it inspires the sea life she paints in her artworks.

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Sealife

“All the fish – barramundi, salmon, dugong, turtle and jellyfish. I paint what I see and eat. Fish of the sea. I paint the right season for them, so if something is in season, I paint it. The threadfin salmon and blue nose salmon come in wintertime. Barramundi is in the hot time, when the jellyfish come out. Dugong is after the rainy season.

I am a ranger and I look after the land and the sea. When it’s hot season, we see jellyfish on the sand and beach – that means it’s the right time for hunting turtles. They’re fat from eating the seagrass and jellyfish. When we see the yellow flowers (wattle) blooming, we know the barramundi are good for catching.

The barramundi stole the pearl shells from the desert and made the creek called Waru Creek, near 80 Mile Beach. There are old fishing camps down that way, and we go with the rangers to do salmon surveys and monitor how healthy they are. When you see the flying clouds and the full moon, it’s the right time for turtle nesting and turtle monitoring. In June and July, they lay their eggs.”

– Elliot Hunter

Elliot is also a Nyangumarta Ranger, working to protect both land and sea. Nyangumarta Country stretches across the coastline and inland desert of the northwest, from 80 Mile Beach through the Great Sandy Desert. It is a vast landscape of red sand dunes, claypans, salt marshes, and long stretches of coastal waters rich with sealife. Fishing is not only part of Elliot’s everyday life but also an important cultural practice that connects him to Country and community. Through his paintings, he brings together his knowledge as a ranger and his lived experience of fishing, showing how the seasons guide when and what to hunt. His artworks celebrate the richness of sea life while sharing stories that have been passed down.

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Nyurnma (burnt country)

This painting is about the landscape, bushfire (waru), and bush foods. Seeing the difference after the waru burns, it leaves some patches on the ground, and when the regrowth of the bush plants come back to life, it leaves a mark.

Well, I learnt that story from my grandmother—going out bush, learning about the different sides of burning. Talking about before burning and after burning, and how people go hunting after burning, looking for goanna. Teaching the younger generation where and when to hunt for goanna.

I learnt painting from my grandmother (Nola Taylor) and my grandfathers (Muuki Taylor, Wokka Taylor) by going out on Country, sharing stories, and learning from them about bush plants and bush food. I painted before, but going to Parnngurr and being around old people really opened my mind—seeing them paint and the colours they used. My daughter started painting with the old people too, and now she watches me paint their stories. I’d like to be an inspiration to her and to young people.

My Black Soil Country

This painting is of Ngarrawanji which is black soil country grass and rocky country which gets really boggy when it is wet.

“I paint it in different colours but it always goes back to my Black Soil Country, we’ve got a lot of black soil country through t our country, once you’re in it you can get stuck in it, I remember being stuck in black soil country as had incidents even after being told not to go there, because of me having encounters on black soil country I can recollect my times on my country, they would say don’t go that way, that’s black soil country! but sometimes there is only one road. It pays a big part in me, that’s what I think about in my country, that black soil”

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My Black Soil Country

This painting is of Ngarrawanji which is black soil country grass and rocky country which gets really boggy when it is wet.

“I paint it in different colours but it always goes back to my Black Soil Country, we’ve got a lot of black soil country through t our country, once you’re in it you can get stuck in it, I remember being stuck in black soil country as had incidents even after being told not to go there, because of me having encounters on black soil country I can recollect my times on my country, they would say don’t go that way, that’s black soil country! but sometimes there is only one road. It pays a big part in me, that’s what I think about in my country, that black soil”

My Black Soil Country

This painting is of Ngarrawanji which is black soil country grass and rocky country which gets really boggy when it is wet.

“I paint it in different colours but it always goes back to my Black Soil Country, we’ve got a lot of black soil country through t our country, once you’re in it you can get stuck in it, I remember being stuck in black soil country as had incidents even after being told not to go there, because of me having encounters on black soil country I can recollect my times on my country, they would say don’t go that way, that’s black soil country! but sometimes there is only one road. It pays a big part in me, that’s what I think about in my country, that black soil”

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