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Minnie Lumai Silk Paj

This painting relates a key Ngarranggarni (dreaming) story for the Miriwoong and Gadjerriwoong peoples for the ownership of country around Kununurra and to the east in a place called Yab-yabbe-geni-nim

The plains kangaroo (Jarlangarnang) was a Miriwoong man and the hill kangaroo (Nyangood) was a Gadjerriwoong man.  They had an argument about sugar bag (wild honey) which the plains kangaroo had hidden in the ridge.  The two kangaroos began to fight and the beeswax was scattered across the hill [represented by the circle motifs in the painting].   “You can see it now…. all the rocks.  Jarlangarnang told Nyangood  “This is not your place. This is Miriwoong country.”   So Nyangood followed the ridges back to his country.”

Categories: WARINGARRI ABORIGINAL ARTS

Name: MINNIE LUMAI

Language: Miriwoong

Biography:

Minnie Lumai is named after a freshwater spring that gently bubbles with the sound of her name - lu-mai, lu-mai, lu-mai. Her art demonstrates an energy that is at once energetic and serene. "In the early days I was a kid living at Newry Station. I looked after the goats and milked cows and I knew how to make the butter. After that I got married and went to Argyle Homestead. I worked there in the house. Old Sheeba taught me how to make bread and then I knew how to cook for the stock camp. We went to Lissadel. Next I came to Kununurra. I looked after my kids here. I didn't start painting until 2004. I had been watching all those people painting at the art centre - every morning I watched them and I asked my sister if I could come and paint. Now I come here and paint and I dance here too. My paintings are about the stories of my Country and culture - the way the land is from the dreaming and where we travel to hunt and fish."

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© the artist / art centre