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Rollah Block
“This one’s a little block where I grew up, near Bidyadanga. It reminds me of when I was little, we used to play in the old chicken house. Reminds me of home. That tank I always paint, that’s the water tank. The water we get from the tank, it’s all underground.
My grandmother stays out there, in that big house. My mother built that other house; we’d stay there. I still go out there now and then.
It’s like a 20-minute drive out of Bidyadanga. Sometimes when you stand on the water tank you can see the beach. There’s lots of fish, crabs, sharks. There’s a croc there now. Some people pass through to get water and keep going, but just my family stay there.”
– Ciarn Dean-Bullen
Bidyadanga is a community located on the Kimberley coast in Western Australia, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the sea. The word Bidyadanga is derived from pijarta/ bidyada (emu watering hole).
Bidyadanga is Ciarn’s Country – her ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). People identify with their ngurra in terms of specific rights and responsibilities, and the possession of intimate knowledge of the physical and cultural properties of one’s Country. Painting ngurra, and in so doing sharing the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories and physical characteristics of that place, has today become an important means of cultural maintenance. Common motifs depicted in her work relate specifically to her heritage of both saltwater country and desert, including marine animals, depictions of water, as well as desert landscapes.
Ciarn is family to fellow Martumili Artists Muuki Taylor OAM and Zia Dean-Bullen. Younger Martu artists often start painting alongside their parents, grandparents, and extended family, which fosters an organic learning process. This not only involves mastering painting techniques but also understanding specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, bush tucker, and Jukurrpa (Dreaming). Over time, with encouragement from their peers, they develop their own distinct styles and explore unique painting techniques and subject matter. In this work the artist brings a contemporary, evolving perspective to their work.
