The Bush Tomato, which grows in the Pilbara area, is like the tomato we get in the shop. It’s a small, very prickly bush. The tomato is usually green, but when it turns a yellowy colour you can eat it. You just clean the black seeds out from the inside because they’re very bitter, then you eat the rest of the inside part, and throw the skin away.
Name: Allery Sandy
Language: Yindjibarndi
Biography:
Allery Sandy is the daughter of Sandy Andrews and Lila King. She was born in Roebourne, the fourth of eleven children. She has a family of two daughters and a son - Joanne, Donna and Bobby Willis. Allery's first job was with Community Welfare selling secondhand clothing, followed by running a play group in the community for needy children. In 1986 she was employed as the Aboriginal Islander Education worker in Roebourne Pre-primary School, followed in 1990 by teaching her own Yindjibarndi language through a LOTE (Languages Other Than English) program. In 2001 she left the school and found work with a team of women doing cooking and sewing and she is also involved in the ministry of the Aboriginal Church. Allery started painting in February 2006, enrolling in short courses in painting and design. She has a natural talent that has progressed very quickly. Allery loves to paint the landscape of her country. She begins her works with an underpainting using sponge and brush work and then finishes off with a fine layer of dot work, creating a sense of movement and depth of field on the canvas. Allery has a number of subjects she likes to paint. She enjoys painting the bush seeds of her country, its creeks and rivers, wildflowers in season and trees that are specific to her Pilbara country. Allery loves to tell stories that were told to her by her father and grandfather. Her favorite style of painting her country is from an aerial perspective. Allery Sandy regularly exhibits in private galleries in Fremantle and Sydney, has won a number of prizes at the Cossack Art Awards, and is represented in public and private collections. Allery has been the Chairperson of Yinjaa-Barni Art since 2006 and is a highly respected member of the Yindjibarndi community and a passionate communicator of her culture. In 2014, Allery was both a SBS off her painting performer and Yindjibarndi language and cultural advisor for the play, "Hipbone Sticking Out". Allery has a film that is can bee seen on SBS online called Marni (My Painting Style).
Rugged Country After the Rain This painting represents my country in the Pilbara just after the dry season when the country is nearly ready to come back to life before the rain season starts.
Early Morning Mist The early morning mist over the water is the smoke from the breakfast fires of the Marrga, the creation spirits. According to Yindjibarndi law, in the beginning the sky was very low. Read more…
Burst of Spring Springtime is a beautiful blending of colours in our Country. After the rain all the wild flowers come up in a pattern like a puzzle. The artist, Melissa, often sponges her background Read more…