Bidyadanga Aboriginal Community LaGrange Inc

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Kulyakartu

“This painting is about all the rocks and kurru (creeks) all around Kulyakartu and Kirriwirri. We went camping there for two weeks, we went to Wirnpa first and then to Kirriwirri. We camped in the nice flat ground in the open when we got to Kulyakartu. We visited the waterholes and soaks, cleaned them out, and made sure there were no dead animals. It was typical ranger work — making sure the animals and Country were surviving. We listened to Muuki and my grandfather talk about how they walked around trying to find waterholes, how my grandfather finally came to Bidyadanga, and how he met my grandmother.

I painted these paintings at home in Bidyadanga, near the ocean. The paintings are of Kulyakartu, which is in the Great Sandy Desert. There is a lot of spinifex, sandhills, wildlife, and little flowers like frangipanis — blue, red, and pink flowers just along the road when you’re driving.

When I’m not in the desert, I feel like I want to paint about it, and painting makes me feel like I want to be there. I think about Muuki and his brothers’ wishes for us to see the Country and be there. It’s important to paint about the Country because our Elders looked after the Country long before us.

When you look out of a plane, you can see lots of different colours, but I chose blues and greens because that’s how I want to express how I see the landscape. When people see my paintings, they might say, ‘That could be the ocean,’ but I say, ‘No, that’s Kulyakartu, the desert.’ Blues and greens make me feel comfortable. For me, I like to keep colours separate and not mix them together.”
 – Chloe Jadai

This artwork shares the story of Kulyakartu, a vast and peaceful area north-east of the community, on the edge of Nyangumarta and Martu Country. Kulyakartu is a place of wide open skies, long claypans, sandhills and soft grasses that come alive after rain.

Families remember camping there, visiting waterholes, looking for goanna and bush foods, watching birds, and travelling with old people who knew every dune, track and soak. The painting celebrates the beauty and calm of Kulyakartu, often shown through soft lines and dots that follow the movement of water and sand. It honours the knowledge of where to find water, how to move across Country, and the deep belonging felt when returning to ancestral places.

Through this work, the artist invites viewers to feel that stillness and connection — the strength of Country, memory and family.

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Wild Flowers in Wili

“This painting is about waterholes in my Grandfather’s Country Wili. They used to walk around in circles searching for bush tucker and water from the waterholes. The different colours represent the wildflowers, the brown is the sand dunes and the circles are the waterholes.”
 – Bibianna Tumbler

This artwork celebrates the wildflowers that bloom across Country, marking the shifting seasons and bringing life, colour to the land. After rain, the desert and coastal plains burst into flower — tiny seeds waking up from the red sand, small petals spreading across dunes, claypans, and saltwater flats.

Flowers show when certain foods are ready and when animals are moving. They signal the time for gathering bush fruits, digging for bush potatoes, collecting honey, and hunting goanna, turkey, and other animals that become fat after the rains. The colours used in this painting reflect the bright and subtle beauty of seasonal flowers — yellows, pinks, purples, and whites scattered across bold desert tones and deep coastal blues.

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My Black Soil Country

“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 throughout our Country. Once you’re in it you can get stuck in it. I remember being stuck in black soil Country and 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 plays a big part in me, that’s what I think about in my Country, that black soil.”
 – Christine Farrer

This artwork celebrates Country — not only land, but a living place of spirit, story, memory and identity. Country is saltwater and desert, wind and rain, sandhills and tide, waterholes and mangroves, sky, animals, plants and ancestors. It is where families walk, hunt, fish, gather, camp and teach the next generations.

When the artist paints Country, they are sharing a map of home and belonging. Lines may follow the dunes and tidal creeks, dots may mark water places or bush foods, colours reflect the seasons — the deep blues of the sea, the soft greens after rain, the hot reds and warm sands of dry Country. Every artwork holds a story: places visited, footsteps of old people, language, knowledge and the feeling of being out bush.

The artist invites the viewer to see Country the way they do — alive, powerful and always connected to family, culture and community. Country is not separate from people; it is part of who they are. Painting it keeps that connection strong, honouring the past, carrying knowledge forward, and sharing it with others.

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Desert to the Sea

This artwork reflects the artist’s connection to Bidyadanga, a place where the desert meets the sea. Through colour, pattern, and texture, the painting captures important themes that shape the identity of the community and Art Centre.

Bidyadanga sits on Karajarri Country, where desert Country meets saltwater Country. The community is home to Karajarri people and to desert families who travelled from the Great Sandy Desert to La Grange Mission in the 1960s and 70s, during a time when drought and changing conditions dried desert water sources. The first five language groups to build the community together were Nyangumarta, Mangala, Yulparija, Juwaliny and Karajarri. Today, Bidyadanga continues to grow, welcoming families from across the Kimberley, Pilbara and beyond, creating a strong and diverse cultural community.

Artists draw on stories of place, family, movement, and survival — caring for both land and sea, hunting and fishing, and living between two immense environments. Patterns, marks, and flowing forms echo desert dunes, waterholes, tidal flats, reefs, bushfoods, and sea life, honouring the knowledge held across generations.

In this work, the artist celebrates the beauty of Country and community, offering a glimpse into the rich histories, cultural strength, and enduring connection to land, sea, and way of life.

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Desert to the Sea

This artwork reflects the artist’s connection to Bidyadanga, a place where the desert meets the sea. Through colour, pattern, and texture, the painting captures important themes that shape the identity of the community and Art Centre.

Bidyadanga sits on Karajarri Country, where desert Country meets saltwater Country. The community is home to Karajarri people and to desert families who travelled from the Great Sandy Desert to La Grange Mission in the 1960s and 70s, during a time when drought and changing conditions dried desert water sources. The first five language groups to build the community together were Nyangumarta, Mangala, Yulparija, Juwaliny and Karajarri. Today, Bidyadanga continues to grow, welcoming families from across the Kimberley, Pilbara and beyond, creating a strong and diverse cultural community.

Artists draw on stories of place, family, movement, and survival — caring for both land and sea, hunting and fishing, and living between two immense environments. Patterns, marks, and flowing forms echo desert dunes, waterholes, tidal flats, reefs, bushfoods, and sea life, honouring the knowledge held across generations.

In this work, the artist celebrates the beauty of Country and community, offering a glimpse into the rich histories, cultural strength, and enduring connection to land, sea, and way of life.

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Sea Animals

This artwork invites the viewer into the world of salt-water Country — the sea animals, the tides, the reefs, the mangroves, the hunting, the gathering, and the guardianship of coast and sea. The artist portrays fish, turtles, rays, dolphins, dugongs, sharks, crustaceans and shellfish, weaving together the patterns of sea-grass, coral, tidal flats, beach and reef.

It tells of families fishing off the beach, children diving in shallow waves, spear hunting, crabbing and catching prawns. It also speaks of wildlife protection — respectful harvesting, ensuring sea animals remain healthy, sea-ranger work and cultural practice.

With flowing patterns, deep blues and turquoise, shell shapes, wave forms and animal tracks, the work echoes the movement of water, tides and life beneath the waves. The artist invites us to listen to the tide, recognise the connection between land, sea, animal and people, and remember that to harvest is also to care — leaving Country strong for those who come next.

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My Black Soil Country

“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 throughout our Country. Once you’re in it you can get stuck in it. I remember being stuck in black soil Country and 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 plays a big part in me, that’s what I think about in my Country, that black soil.”
 – Christine Farrer

This artwork celebrates Country — not only land, but a living place of spirit, story, memory and identity. Country is saltwater and desert, wind and rain, sandhills and tide, waterholes and mangroves, sky, animals, plants and ancestors. It is where families walk, hunt, fish, gather, camp and teach the next generations.

When the artist paints Country, they are sharing a map of home and belonging. Lines may follow the dunes and tidal creeks, dots may mark water places or bush foods, colours reflect the seasons — the deep blues of the sea, the soft greens after rain, the hot reds and warm sands of dry Country. Every artwork holds a story: places visited, footsteps of old people, language, knowledge and the feeling of being out bush.

The artist invites the viewer to see Country the way they do — alive, powerful and always connected to family, culture and community. Country is not separate from people; it is part of who they are. Painting it keeps that connection strong, honouring the past, carrying knowledge forward, and sharing it with others.

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Nyangumarta Warrarn (Country)

“Nyangumarta Country is home to the Nyangumarta people — from the desert to the seaside. Old people lived and walked on this land, and we as Nyangumarta still look after it today. We go out on Country, hunting and living from the traditional foods of the land.

Nyangumarta people travelled and lived between the desert and the sea. This painting tells a story from the Nyangumarta Dreaming — of a woman who walked with her child along this Country collecting seafood, mayi. They were both on the reef when the tide came in and drowned them. Today, two rocks remain out by the sea, marking their story.

We carry our culture, and most people tell stories through their painting — that’s how it’s always been. Passing knowledge down. Younger people might not see it now, but in the future, they might want to follow in their Elders’ footsteps — carrying on the skills, knowledge, and way of life. It can be anything: painting, hunting, becoming leaders.”
 – Venetta Yanawana

This artwork honours Nyangumarta Country — from the long sweep of Eighty Mile Beach and coastal flats to the rolling sand dunes and salt lakes of the Great Sandy Desert. It holds the movement between saltwater and desert: tides, reefs and mangroves to the west; dunes, claypans and waterholes to the east.

Lines flow like wind across spinifex and waves in the ocean; dots gather where waters sit after rain; colours shift from deep blues to desert reds and whites of saltpan. The painting also reflects the ongoing work of Nyangumarta families and rangers to look after Country — sea and land — guided by community plans and Indigenous Protected Area management.

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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 sea life. 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 and lived on Country.

This artwork invites the viewer into the world of salt-water Country — the sea animals, the tides, the reefs, the mangroves, the hunting, the gathering, and the guardianship of coast and sea. The artist portrays fish, turtles, rays, dolphins, dugongs, sharks, crustaceans and shellfish, weaving together the patterns of sea-grass, coral, tidal flats, beach and reef.

It tells of families fishing off the beach, children diving in shallow waves, spear hunting, crabbing and catching prawns. It also speaks of wildlife protection — respectful harvesting, ensuring sea animals remain healthy, sea-ranger work and cultural practice.

With flowing patterns, deep blues and turquoise, shell shapes, wave forms and animal tracks, the work echoes the movement of water, tides and life beneath the waves. The artist invites us to listen to the tide, recognise the connection between land, sea, animal and people, and remember that to harvest is also to care — leaving Country strong for those who come next.

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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.

Dimensions: 46 x 61cm