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.
During dry summer months our country looks so dry, but the beauty of the red earth, the spinifex and dry grass make it beautiful.
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. When the creation spirits, Marrga, arose from the ground they raised the sky and the world out of the ocean. This creation story is called Ngurru Nyujunnggama, ‘When the World was Soft’. The Marrga gave names and form to the country and then to all the birds and animals. Finally they created the Ngaardangarli, the Aboriginal people.
Kenny likes to depict the sea turtles that inhabit the waters of his country. His style is impeccably neat and precise.
Kenny likes to depict the sea turtles that inhabit the waters of his country. His style is impeccably neat and precise.
This is about my country, my grandfather’s country, Millstream, It reminds me of the water- like an underground spring and all the flowers around it. When you go up to our country, you see lots of Mulla Mulla plants with purple flowers and yellowish seeds on top. After the rain on the Tablelands, there’s plenty of green grass. When it’s cold at night, very cold, there are lots of flowers. We get those honey trees, Gurrawa and suck the juice from them. The yellow ones are called ‘jayimarra’.
This is a painting of the sugar Lolly tree before the flowers have fallen off.
When the flowers falloff we go out bush and find the bush gum lolly,( the lolly is the sap that oozes out of the tree)
This painting represents the spinifex bushes that cover our vast range of rugged Pilbara hills.
This painting represents the colours of the leaves during the autumn season. The leaves tend to lose their green color and turn into the beautiful yellows and oranges.
This painting shows the many waterholes you find in the Pilbara region. Some are well known, others are hidden amongst the hills.