Waterholes
This painting shows the many waterholes you find in the Pilbara region. Some are well known, others are hidden amongst the hills.
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Ngarndu Ngurra (My Yindjibarndi Country)
My childhood is filled with memories of a beautiful place called the Pilbara. It is a land that has always offered so much to our people. Our ancestors walked this Country with strength and wisdom, reading the riverbeds, knowing where to gather food, when to fish, and where to rest beneath cool shade. They understood the rhythms of the seasons and trusted in the land. When the rains come, the Country transforms. Wildflowers in purple and pink, shoots push through red earth, and the landscape breathes. There are many hidden treasures; plants that are food and bush medicines that carried our people through sickness and hard times. Survival was knowledge and respect.Today, the Country still hold its beauty through every season. Even in drought, Country remains Country. It is everything to me. It continues to provide, to teach, and to sustain us. Mining companies have transformed parts of the landscape in the Pilbara from how we remember it, but these changes have not stopped us from living our culture. We still go out bush with our families. We fish, swim, and camp together. We continue to practise our traditions in our own ways.Our memories remain strong, including those of our ancestors who have passed on. We always carry them in our hearts. We teach the younger generation about the early days so they can continue the journey. We teach them about tribal group boundaries and the importance of knowing place, the stories in the hills and the rivers. We tell them about who belonged before us and what those places mean.These memories of Country are our identity, our strength, and our future.
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Wild Tomato Plant
The Wild Tomato is one of the bush foods. It is eaten when its colour changes from green to yellow. It is also a common prickly bush.
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Patterns and Colours of Life
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Pilbara Country
The colours in the background represent the pilbara landscape with a hint of colour piercing through representing the scattered wildflowers found all across the countryside in the evening light.
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Salt Flats
There are many Salt flats in the Pilbara.This painting depicts the water flowing underneath with the salt forming on top in ripples to show the movement of the ocean.
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My Country
The Pilbara is where my ancestors come from. The Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma people. There are many things that inspire me like the red hills and dirt, the many beautiful fresh water swimming holes, the rivers and creeks connected to them and the vibrant colours of the wildflowers that grow across the country side scattered amongst the spinifex and trees.
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Mulla Mulla
This is the Fortescue Mulla Mulla or ‘Gumbarli’ in Yindjibarndi language. The flower is a purplish colour. It’s not a bush medicine, just a flower that grows in the country, in lines along the roads and everywhere. In this painting, the seeds of the Mulla Mulla are all blowing out. Once the leaves and petals have fallen off, the seeds are blown all through the land to bring flowers again the next year.
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Waterholes
This painting shows the many waterholes you find in the Pilbara region. Some are well known, others are hidden amongst the hills.
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Colours Through The Rocks
In Yindjibarndi country there are many different shaped rock formations. It looks like a truck has tipped a huge pile of rocks. At different times of the day, especially in the evening sunset, you will see the beautiful colours changing across the face of the rocks which compliments the soft spinifex growing through the country.