they get fish there – they call it gilgaye – when they roll up that spinifex and the fish can’t get way. we used it look at all the old people – they used to roll that spinifex. that’s a holiday place, birnoon country.
Goorndarram bembarramungbende ngenghengs gilmigilgaye wumbarramande gerlernenybaya ngengenghenga binoon.
“They get fish there – they call it Gilgaye – when they roll up that spinifex and the fish can’t get way. We used to look at all the old people – they used to roll that spinifex (to catch the fish). That’s a holiday place, Birnoo country.”
Goorndarram bembarramungbende ngenghengs gilmigilgaye wumbarramande gerlernenybaya ngengenghenga binoon.
Gordon Barney is a senior Gija Warmun artist. His ancestral country is Birnoo Country, which is known as Alice Downs. As a young man, he was a fine stockman, and mustered all over his ancestral Country, which is the subject of all his paintings.
This painting shows Gordon’s country – Birnoo Country (Alice Downs Station). Birnoo is Gordon’s mother’s country. Gordon mustered cattle all throughout this country for many years – the way his father taught him to.
He became known as a skilled horsebreaker and buckjumper (rodeo rider). When Gordon worked as a stockman, he would often carry with him a saddle bag for his ochre collection. At the end of his mustering stint, he would have a bagful of ochres that he sourced from riding through his country.
He often paints the hills of Birnoo, which connects his to his mother’s country.
In this work Mabel Juli has brought together two very significantNgarranggarni (Dreaming) stories from Darrajayin. As well as the physical proximity of parts of country in which these two stories take place, their central characters, namely Garnkiny the Moon and Lalanggarrany the Crocodile, are also both of Joowoorrooskin, making them Mabel’s classificatory brothers. Like Garnkiny,the Lalanggarrany doo Darndalstory strongly concerns the obligations laid down by kinship laws as the Crocodile’s maternal grandmother goes to great lengths to carry out her proper responsibility towards him, despite the deceiptful and disrespectful actions of Ant and Lizard. In this version told to Alana Hunt in 2013, Mabel is careful to detail the family relationships between the characters.
Lalanggarrany was a wonderful tall dancer who was preparing to dance with his brother. The Smelly Ant tricked the Bat into believing the Crocodile had been insulting him behind his back. Bat told the people to light a big fire so he could see where thatLalanggarrany was dancing with his brother. When he foundLalanggarrany, Bat speared him in the thigh, killing him.
Lalanggarrany’s maternal grandmother Darndal (Turtle) was very sad, she carried Lalanggarrany in a coolamon with the help of Crocodile’s maternal grandfather the Waving Lizard, ofJoongoorra skin. They were looking for water and after a long journey stopped in the shade of a large nyarndoo tree at a place called Merrewoon, while Darndal started to dig. Joongoorra was a greedy one, he pretended to cry, “Oh my thamanyji, wiyiri, wiyiri, wiyiri.” But as he cried he secretly ate the fat of the Crocodile from his wound. After digging for a long time, water started coming out of the ground like a tap. The greedy Lizard,Joongoorra,turned to stone. You can still see that stone inDarrajayin Country today. Darndal covered Lalangarrany and herself in gum from the tree they were camped under andLalanggarrany came back to life and dived straight into that water. Darndal followed her grandson into the water, and they lived there together.
This Rock hole is la Birnoowoon Country,
we use this rock hole for fishing we catchem moot moot there thats the pearch small but very good eating we picnic here with the whole family and even bogey (Bath) in this rock hole it was very deep.
Beautiful place my country.
Kija
Berrimbe gendewa dagoorlan birnoo gendang wiji ngerne
Yirrayinde goorndarrim burru nyirrega girrim
Yirramangginde moornmoorbe janggirrim.
This is a painting of a paper bark tree on the banks of the Little Panton River (near Halls Creek) on Mary’s Country. The yellow part of the tree is the paper bark leaf. The Woorra Woorral uses the leaf to sweep up the sand on the banks of the river to clean, like a broom. The yellow represents the sand and the brown represents the country. You can’t see the face of the Woorra Woorral. They gave this painting to Mary in a dream. They look after the river.
This is that Greenvale now. Mum told me that that’s that Garrganny (water lily) place. They got a sharp rock there and all them pointy rocks. These can be seen located within the middle of the artwork
Kathy says “Them round circles, them digging holes from the old, old people. They went looking for them things now, bush potatoes.”
