Always Was, Always Will Be by Everywhen Artspace |McCulloch & McCulloch

Always Was, Always Will Be

Front: Agnes Nampijinpa Brown, Ngapa Jukurrpa, acrylic on linen, 107 x 91cm (detail). Courtesy the artist and Warlukurlangu Artists Left: Susan Wanji Wanji, Jarrakalani, ochres on linen, 120 x 80cm (detail). Courtesy the artist and Munupi Arts.

Artworks: ©The artists Text: ©Susan McCulloch and Emily McCulloch Childs Design: ©Lisa Reidy

EXHIBITINGARTISTS Agnes Nampijinpa Brown Alison MuntiRiley Amanda Jane Gabori Athena Nangala Granites Barbara Weir BenGalmirri Ward Bugai Whyoulter Connie Brown Cynthia Hardie Debbie Napaljarri Brown Doris Bush Nungurrayi Elsie NapanangkaGranites Gordon Barney Jack/CraigAnselmi Janet GolderKngwarreye Jeannie Mills Pwerle Julie Yatjitja 4

Laurel Robinson Lizzie Moss Pwerle Maureen HudsonNampitjinpa Minnie Lumai Moyurra Wunungmurra Nellie Coulthard Norm Stewart Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri Peggy MadjirroongGriffiths Priscilla Singer RosalindTjanyari Susan WanjiWanji Teresa Pumani Mula Pimangka Watson CorbyTjungurrayi Wulu Marawili YurpiyaLionel

Exhibiting Art Centres Buku Larrnggay Mulka Ernabella Arts Iwantja Arts Kaiela Arts Mornington Island Arts Munupi Arts Papunya Tjupi WarmunArts WaringarriArts WarlayirtiArtists WarlukurlanguArtists

introduction

This exhibition celebrates the theme of NAIDOC Week 2020 – Always Was, Always Will Be – and Aboriginal artists’ connections to lands. NAIDOC (which stands for the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) had its genesis pre 1920s when Australia Day was regularly boycotted by Aboriginal people. The move towards greater recognition of Aboriginal people gained momentum on Australia Day, 1938 as the result of a march in which protestors marched through the streets of Sydney, followed by a congress attended by over 1000 people. Known as the Day of Mourning, as noted on the NAIDOC website, this was one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world. “Following the congress, a deputation led by Yorta Yorta man William Cooper presented Prime Minister Joseph Lyons with a proposed national policy for Aboriginal people. This was again rejected because the Government did not hold constitutional powers in relation to Aboriginal people.” “After the Day of Mourning, there was a growing feeling that it should be a regular event. In 1939 William Cooper wrote to the National Missionary Council of Australia to seek their assistance in supporting and promoting an annual event. From 1940 until 1955, the Day of Mourning was held annually on the Sunday before Australia Day and was known as Aborigines Day. “ “In 1955 Aborigines Day was shifted to the first Sunday in July after it was decided the day should become not simply a protest day but also a celebration of Aboriginal culture.” Increasingly support has grown for NAIDOC week in both the Aboriginal and general Australian communities and each year a different theme is chosen to represent various aspects of Aboriginal life and culture. Themes have included Recognition, Rights; Honoring our Elders; Standing on Sacred Ground; Songlines; Our Languages Matter; Because of Her and Voice Treaty Truth. The theme of this year’s NAIDOC Always Was, Always Will Be, celebrates Aboriginal people’s connection and entitlement to lands.

Over the last few decades, art has been a key factor in numerous Indigenous land rights claims with works often created for the purpose providing graphic and powerful demonstration of Aboriginal people’s long and close history with their lands and their entitlement to them. For Aboriginal people there is little distinction between themselves and their lands; they don’t live on their lands so much as they are the land. As such most of the Aboriginal art that we show could be included in this exhibition. We have however selected a representative body of work by 33 artists from Victoria, the Central, Western and Eastern Deserts, the Kimberley, the Pilbara, Arnhem Land, the Tiwi Islands and Queensland whose practice demonstrates particular aspects of connection to lands. Most of the exhibiting artists still live on their traditional lands. Some, such as Bugai Whyoulter, Doris Bush, Julie Yajtitja, Nellie Coulthard, Teresa Pumani and Yurpiya Lionel grew up living a very traditional ‘bush’ lifestyle - rarely in contact with Europeans and strongly connected to the seasons, traditional foods, medicines and ceremonial practices. Others such as Gordon Barney, Peggy Madjirroong Griffiths, Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri, Lizzie Moss Pula and Jeannie Mills Pwerle in their youth lived a semi traditional lifestyle as well as working as station workers and stock men and women on and around their traditional lands. Alison Munti Riley, Barbara Weir, Ben Galmirri Ward, Norm Stewart have been notable activists for their communities in acquiring landrights and fighting the destruction of their lands through agriculture, mining and other incursions. Mornington Island’s Amanda Gabori, Papunya’s Watson Corby Tjungurrayi, Yuendumu’s Athena Nangala Granites and Debbie Napaljarri Brown learnt the art of painting from their famous artist mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers while Victorian artists Cynthia Hardie, Jack Anselmi and Laurel Robinson note that the practice of art has helped to reconnected them to both their culture and country.

Susan McCulloch October 2020

Ada Pula Beasley

Ada Pula Beasley is an Alyawarre artist born in 1959. She is the sister of artist Michelle Holmes and the daughter of artist Jilly Holmes. Ada is very interested in preserving her culture and teaching the younger artists about country and bush medicines. Ada started painting with Artists of Ampilatwaja in 2012. She says: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I paint so my kids will learn about their country. I like painting because it reminds me of my country and where the bush medicine and bush tucker grow and where we go hunting.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Her works therefore are always focused on her inherited land as her subject, with a botanical art element documenting the important food and plant medicine knowledge of this land, including mulga and witchetty trees, native fuchsia, river red gum, spinifex grass and the many varieties of bush flowers.

Ada Pula Beasley My Country 2020, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 76 cm MM5054 | $2400

AgnesNampijinpaBrown Agnes Nampijinpa Brown Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) 2020, acrylic on linen, 152 x 107 MM4990 | $3500

Agnes Nampijinpa Brown is a Warlpiri artist from Yuendumu, 290 km north of Alice Springs. She was born in 1965 and has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists at Yuendumu since 2006. Brown paints her father’s jukurrpa stories (‘dreamings’: no English word exists to encapsulate this concept) relating directly to her land, its features and animals. Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) is one of the main Dreaming stories discussed in Brown’s art. The site depicted is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. This is a Jukurrpa of a giant storm, with many aspects to the story, evidenced in geographical features of the land. Puyurru is a place of usually dry creek beds with ‘mulju’ (soakages), naturally occurring wells. The ‘kirda’ (owners) for this site are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/ Jampijinpa men.

This jukurrpa tells of two Jangala men, rainmakers, who sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. This storm travelled across the country from the east to the west, across many sites, encountering many other Spirit Creator Beings, including the ‘Kurdukurdu Mangkurdu Jukurrpa’ (Children of the Clouds Dreaming), a ‘Kirrkarlanji’ (Brown Falcon [Falcoberigora]) and a giant ‘Warnayarra’ (Rainbow Serpent). This Water Dreaming stopped at Puyurru, before travelling on before moving into Gurindji country to the north.

AgnesNampijinpaBrown Agnes Nampijinpa Brown Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) 2020, acrylic on linen, 122 x 107cm MM5010 | $2900

Alison Munti Riley

Alison Riley is a leading mid generation artist of the APY Lands. She was born and grew up at Pukatja (Ernabella), as an adult, traveling and living on other APY communities also. The subject of much of her painting is that of the country that she remembers so well as a child in its “olden days’ - the lush state it was in before the invasion of the renowned buffle grass which has spread throughout much of Australia’s interior. The subject of this painting bears a strong message from senior Ernabella artist and cultural leader Niningka Lewis who contrasts the ‘ara iritija’ – the old ways which she remembers and in which people lived a traditional life and culture and ‘ara kuwaritj’ – the new ways emerging from the gradual influence of the white man whose customs she says were ‘sometimes good’ but overall led to cultural weakening through the introduction of dangerous substances and the lessening of traditional mores.

Alison Munti Riley Ara irititja, ara kuwaritja â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Old way, new way 2020, acrylic on canvas,150 x 120 cm MM5024 | $4500

Amanda Jane Gabori Amanda Jane Gabori Corals at My Father's Country 2018, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 101cm MM3924 | $3900

Born in 1966, Amanda Jane Gabori is the youngest daughter of the 10 children of the famous late artist Sally Gabori of Bentick Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. She started painting with her mother at the art centre on Mornington Island in about 2010. A highly creative and talented artist her work is gaining much attention since she started exhibiting in 2016. She says: “I paint my Country on Bentinck Island and Dibirdibi which is my language name and totem given to me by my father. Dibirdibi is the small river rock cod. I like to paint the scales that cover his body.” “These are the corals at Flat Rock, this is My Father’s Country at Sweers Island. That’s the place where the buganun oysters are.”

Athena Nangala Granites Athena Nangala Granites Npaljarri-warnu Jukurrpa (Seven Sisters Dreaming) 2020, acrylic on linen, 122 x 91cm MM5042 | $2500

Athena Nangala Granites was born in 1994 in Alice Springs and lives in the NT Aboriginal community of Yuendumu. Her late grandmother Alma Nungurrayi Granites was the most famous of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painters of the Seven Sisters Dreamings. Athena says that she learnt to paint from watching her grandmother and mother (Geraldine Napangardi Granites) paint. Athena is boldly experimental in both colour and style and her depictions of the Seven Sisters story are always exciting and different. The Napaljarri-Warnu Jukurrpa (Seven Sisters Dreaming) depicts the story of the seven ancestral Napaljarri sisters who are found in the night sky today in the cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, more commonly known as the Pleiades. Yanjirlpirri Jukurrpa

(Star Dreaming) tells of the journey of men who travelled westwards. The site depicted is Yanjirlypiri (star) where there is a low hill and a water soakage. The importance of this place cannot be overemphasized

Barbara Weir Barbara Weir Awelye 2020, ochres & crystal on canvas, 100 x 150cm MM4866 | $7900

Born around 1945, Weir is a well-known artist from Utopia, NT. She had a close familial relationship with famed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye and was one of the younger women of the Utopia batik school. Weir began her painting career in 1994 and has since become a highly popular and successful artist, travelling to exhibitions of her work held around Australia and internationally. Weir’s paintings represent the once fertile lands of her mother’s (the late artist Minnie Pwerle) country at a time when plants, animals and water (including that considered sacred) were plentiful. Themes of her paintings include grass seed, bush berry, wildflowers and Awelye (women’s body design). Recent works have seen Barbara incorporate different media including ochres, ash and crystal from her country in her paintings such that this expressionistic work of great texture and subtle power.

Ben Galmirri Ward

Ben Ward was born at Argyle Downs Station in 1949. He was taught cultural knowledge and traditional ways by his stepfather, the senior cultural leader Jeff Chunama whose deep knowledge of their lands – later to be submerged beneath the waters of the vast Argyle Dam – played a pivotal role in Ward’s life and later, his art. A great speaker, Ben is strongly involved in land rights and community issues. He began painting in 2011. In this painting he employs triangular designs of juxtaposed coloured ochre to depict the rivers, mountains and ranges of his country while also commenting on issues that are close to his heart such as Pigeon Dreaming “The peace pigeon – gooloodoodoog created this country by scratching out the ground with his feet in the Dreamtime,” he says. The central design represents a water hole. “I have deliberately painted a nuclear waste symbol in the centre. White man has destroyed this Country by allowing cattle to roam all over it. This is a sacred site and the waterhole in the centre has been fouled up. You wouldn’t go near a nuclear waste site, would you?”

Ben Galmirri Ward, Pigeon Dreaming 2019, natural pigment on paper, 76 x 56cm (image size) MM4550 | $2900 (framed)

Bugai Whyoulter Bugai Whyoulter Parrngurr 2019, acrylic on linen, 91 x 61cm MM4736 | $2,600

One of the strongest stars of Martumili art centre, located in the eastern Pilbara region of WA, Bugai Whyoulter has become one of Australia’s most highly prized contemporary artists. She was born c.1940 at Pukayiyirna, present day Balfour Downs Station and travelled as a child with her parents northwards to Kunawarritji: also known as Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route. She started painting with the great founding Pilbara/Western Desert contemporary artists the late Nora Wompi and Eubena Nampitjin in the 1990s as a young woman. In recent years Bugai’s work has come to fruition, with several major public gallery exhibitions and a retrospective exhibition in 2019. She paints important sites in thick, luscious colour and seemingly abstract design, under which is hidden myriad knowledge of country and law.

This work depicts Parrngurr – 370km east of Newman, WA and Bugai’s father’s country. Historically and culturally Parnngurr and its beautiful rockhole was an important site for Aboriginal people during the pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling) era. In the epic jukurrpa (dreamtime story of the Seven Sisters), the sisters stop to rest on the adjacent Parrngurr hill before continuing on their long journey east.

Connie Brown

A Pintupi speaker, Connie was born in 1985 and lives at Papunya, NT. She has painted her Grandfather’s Kapi Tjukurrpa, from Yala Yala outstation near Kinotre, NT. The work represents a waterhole from this area. Connie speaks of how when she was a child she would dance and watch her Grandfather paint. After her Grandfather passed away, she began to paint his story, influenced by his style of painting. The lines represent the rain clouds, raining on the land, allowing for many Pituri to grow from the water (represented by the white dots). Pituri is a type of wild desert tobacco. The plant produces a white flower which Connie paints. In Central Australia the leaves from this plant are used for chewing.”When it rains, I climb up the big rock to the top, and I’m happy,” she says.

Connie Brown, Yala Yala Tjukurrpa 2018, acrylic on canvas 152 x 91cm MM5050 | $3500

Cynthia Hardie

Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna , Vic and works with Kaiela Arts, Shepparton. Over the years she has filled her home with her beautiful creation. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papier- mâché bowls, clap sticks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time. Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life. Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs. In 2016 Cynthia was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place. Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics. wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics. Cynthia says “coolamons carried food and babies and are still an important symbol of our culture. My coolamon has been mended with gold leaf to indicate the ongoing mending of our Aboriginal culture and the precious nature of our collective past”.

Cynthia Hardie, Bush Tucker Coolaman Ceramic â&#x20AC;&#x201C; unglazed with gold findings, 60cm (l) x 35cm (w) x 14cm(h) MM4946 | $890

Debbie Napaljarri Brown Debbie Napaljarri Brown Wanakij Jukurrpa (Bush Tomato Dreaming) 2020, acrylic on linen, 91 x 46cm MM5047 | $1200

Debbie Napaljarri Brown was born in Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community 400 km northwest of Alice Springs. Brown began her artistic career with Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu, in 2006. Her grandfather was the renowned Pintupi artist Pegleg Tjampitjinpa (c. 1920-2006) who grew up in the vicinity of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay), living a traditional life. Brown would watch her grandmother, Margaret Napangardi Brown and grandfather paint and listen to her grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jukurrpa or dreaming stories. This work concerns the Wanakiji Jukurrpa (bush tomato [Solanum chippendalei] Dreaming), which travels through Yaturlu (near Mount Theo, north of Yuendumu). Wanakij grows in open spinifex country and is a small, prickly plant with purple flowers that bears edible green fleshy fruit with many

small black seeds. The Wanakiji Jukurrpa belongs to Napanangka/Napangardi women and Japanangka/Japangardi men. Brown references the topography of the landscape, home of this jukurrpa, from an aerial perspective that she adapts with dynamic artistic elements, using light and shade to evoke the layers of jukurrpa and knowledge of country and creation

Doris Bush Nungarrayi

Doris Bush Nungarrayi was born in 1942 at Haasts Bluff and later moved to Papunya. One of the founding artists of Papunya Tjupi Arts at Papunya, she has developed to become a highly regarded, innovative and highly soughtafter artist. In this painting, she records memories from her past as a girl and learning from her mother out at Wilura and Nyumannu – a Dreaming site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory. While painting, Doris talked of her and her mother handling different types of Mangarri (food) – enacting the handling and eating of Mai (food) and drinking Kapi (water). She spoke of the breaking open of Pura (big wild bush tomatoes) to eat the flesh and the collecting and eating of ilyuru (a sweet natural cottoncandy-like bush food).

Along with these foods, her painting includes the different tools necessary for food gathering including wana (digging sticks) and other elements of this fertile landscape such as witya (trees) - whose memory she evokes while painting by sitting under a large tree outside the art centre at Papunya. She also recalls the whole family sitting around ‘nikiti way’ (without clothes in the old days) and without any other Western tools, saying “Billy can wiya! Blanket wiya! Just running around!”(no billy cans, no blankets – just running around).

Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Bush Mangarri Tjuta 2019, acrylic on linen, 152 x 122cm MM5002 | $5800

Elsie Napanangka Granites Elsie Napanangka Granites Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming) 2020, acrylic on linen, 122 x 107cm MM4993 | $3200

Elsie Napanangka Granites was born in 1959 and is a founding and senior artist with Warlukurlangu Artists of Yuendumu, NT with whom she has been painting since 1989. She is an active member of the community on many community projects relating to health and wellbeing and paints the dreaming stories of her traditional country of Janyinki in the Western Desert. The country associated with the Jukurrpa of this painting is Mina Mina, a place far to the west of Yuendumu, which is significant to Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men. The Jukurrpa story tells of the journey of a group of women of all ages who travelled to the east gathering food, collecting ngalyipi (snake vine) and performing ceremonies.

The women began their journey at Mina Mina where karlangu (digging sticks) emerged from the ground. Taking these implements they travelled east creating Janyinki and other sites. Their journey took them far to the east beyond the boundaries of Warlpiri country. The ngalyipi vine grows up the trunks and limbs of the kurrkara (desert oak) trees. It is a sacred vine to Napangardi and Napanangka women and has many uses - as a cremonial wrap, as a strap to carry parrajas (wooden bowls) that are laden with bush tucker and as a tourniquet for headaches.

Gordon Barney

Gordon Barney was born in 1945. He is a Gija speaker and leading artist of Warmun Arts in the East Kimberley. He was born and grew up on his country which includes Alice Downs in 1945. He worked on Alice Downs and other Kimberley stations as a stockman for many years and met his wife, leading Kimberley painter Shirley Purdie at Mabel Downs. In this painting Gordon depicts the hills of his country of Birnoo and which surround the large Birnoo Rockhole. Birnoo country includes Alice Downs. Gordon has noted that as he walked across this land with family there was always an abundance of bush food. In the evening birds, kangaroos and emus come to the rockhole to drink. Two jumuluny (boab trees) stand beside the rockhole, which lies south of the station homestead.

Gordon Barney, Birnoo Country 2014, natural ochre and pigments on canvas, 120 x 90cm MM4657 | $4500

Jack/Craig Anselmi

Yorta Yorta man Jack Anselmi was born in 1965 at Mooroopna, Victoria. A regular participating artist at Kaiela Arts in Shepparton, Jack enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and learning new skills. He is highly regarded for his striking animal carvings, sculptures and ceramics. Jack has received various commissions including from Melbourne University and Goulburn Valley Grammar School. In 2016, Jack Anselmi worked with fellow artist Cynthia Hardie to create a large ceramic installation called ‘Midden’ for the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. ‘Midden’ was one of five shortlisted entries and won the 2016 Award for its innovative use of the medium of ceramic. A recurring theme in his ceramics is the long-neck turtle which is the Yorta Yorta totem. Jack breathes life into previously inanimate objects whether in wood or ceramic, his animals have an energy about them that is captivating. This painting is of four Yorta Yorta ladies talking by the stars.

Jack/Craig Anselmi Yorta Yorta Ladies Talking 2019, charcoal on paper, 70 x 100cm MM4934 | $2400 (framed)

Janet Golder Kngwarreye

Janet Golder Kngwarreye is an Anmatyerre artist from Mulga Bore on the Utopia Homelands. The artistic line in her family runs deep. Her grandmothers are esteemed Utopia artists Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle, her uncle is Greeny Purvis and her sister Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is also an accomplished artist. Golder began painting in 1987, learning her skills from family members and taking on the subject matter that was familiar to the women artists in her family group. These include the Awelye Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ceremonial Body Paint and the Bush Yam Leaf designs and stories, as well as Bush Medicine and Mountain Devil Dreaming. In recent times Janet has developed further stories based around the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural practice on Country, combining imagery of bush tucker along with features of the Utopia landscape. Golder is highly skilled in her use of colour with her paintings often fusing black and white design with colour elements. 42

Janet Golder Kngwarreye My Country 2020, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 87cm MM5014 | $3400

Jeannie Mills Pwerle Jeannie Mills Pwerle Yam Dreaming 2020 acrylic on linen, 97 x 95cm MM5013 | 2300

2300 Jeannie Mills Pwerle, born in 1965, is an artist from Utopia, about 230km north east of Alice Springs. Here she lives a traditional life at her homelands of Irrwelty and Atnwengerrp. She is involved in educating and encouraging other women to participate in art and culture. Mills is also a ngangker (traditional healer or doctor) providing applications to her community. Artistically, she has become well-recognised for her highly popular, unique interpretations of Anaty (desert yam or bush potato) Dreaming story. Mills’ late aunt was Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Australia’s most prized female artist. Kngwarreye had as her principal Dreaming the anwerlarr (pencil yam) which was associated with her birthplace, Alhalker. Likewise, Mills’s enduring subject matter is her Dreaming of

Anaty (Bush Potato/Yam pronounced ‘ungkiy-yah’, Ipomoea costata) story from her father’s country, Irrweltye. This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. Mill’s contemporary interpretation depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty and its flower (brush work).

Julie Yatjitja Julie Yatjitja Iwantja Tjukitji (Iwantja Soakage) 2020, acrylic on linen, 122 x 152cm MM4967 | $3200

Julie Yatjitja is a Yankunytjatjara woman from Indulkana in the APY Lands of SA. Julie was born in 1969 in the cool waters of the Iwantja creek next to the large Iwantja soakage around which the community was founded in the 1960s. The area is shaded by large gum trees, and the banks of the creek nestle close to large boulders. As a child she and her family lived there in a hand-built wiltja (shelter). Julie started painting around 2016, and from her first works she was recognised as a significant talent. Her paintings shimmer with an exuberant energy as she captures the intensity and power of her country, its many rockholes, traveling lines and water sites especially that of her birthplace - the Iwantja creek and adjoining soakage and which holds the story of the Tjurki (native owl) that looks over her people.

Julieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is becoming increasingly exhibited by leading galleries around Australia and highly sought after by collectors and art enthusiasts alike.

Laurel Robinson

Laurel Briggs Robinson is a Yorta YortaWurunjeri woman born at Mooroopna, Vic. She grew up in Shepparton where she attended school to her teenage years. She then went to Melbourne and worked as a telephonist, then to Sydney NSW and work for the Aboriginal medical service for 40 years. She returned to Shepparton and later, joining Kaiela Arts, in Shepparton she realised that she could express her “hidden feelings” in art as well as the memories of her childhood. She says. “I do love working with the other elders and exchanging stories. I think it’s important that we pass our stories onto the younger generations.”

This painting is of the platypus “also called duckling a small amphibious Australian mammal noted for its odd combination of primitive features, and special adaptations. They are common in the waterways of Eastern Australia they generally feed on bottom dwelling invertebrate, also occasional cray fish and insects. This shy creature forages most actively from dusk to dawn sheltering during the day in burrows”.

Laurel Robinson Berranga (Platypus) 2020, watercolour on paper, 60 x 50cm (image size) MM4935 | $890 (framed)

Lizzie Moss Pwerle

Lizzie Moss Pwerle is a senior artist from Utopia, a community located 240 kilometres north east of Alice Springs. She was involved in the Batik project of the 1980s, when Western craft practices and traditional Indigenous imagery were combined for the first time and she was one of the early artists who began to use acrylic paint and canvas several years later. Lizzie is a first cousin of the famed Pwerle sisters- Minnie, Emily and Galya and has a profound knowledge and respect for her country, and this is reflected in her paintings. Her works have been exhibited in exhibitions in leading private galleries around Australia. Her main painting themes are those of her country â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in which she recreates an aerial perspective of her country of Atnwengerrp â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those of Bush Orange Dreamings and the subject of this painting the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ceremony called Ingkwelaye in which women paint themselves up and perform ceremonies to ensure the fertility of the land, its plants and animals. The lines in this painting are reminiscent of the patterns the women paint on their bodies and the lines in the sand they make which dancing the ceremony.

Lizzie Moss Pwerle Dancing Lines 2020, acrylic on linen, 150 x 120 cm MM4994 | $4800

MaureenHudsonNampitjinpa

Maureen Hudson Nampitijinpa was born in 1959 at Mount Allan and is of Anmatyerre and Warlpiri descent. Her country is Mt. Wedge and Mt. Ellen (Kerrinyarra). Maureen began painting in 1981. Her work has been hailed for its sense of perspective and fine layering in which the land formations appear to be folding in on themselves – especially when viewed from a distance. This painting depicts the sandhill country surrounding Mount Allan – Maureen’s homeland. The oblique lines represent the sand hills with the whole capturing a geographical depiction of her country.

Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa Tali â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sandhills 2019, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 91cm MM4779 | $3900

Minnie Lumai Minnie Lumai Jaljan – Catfish Dreaming 2019, natural pigments on canvas, 60 x 60cm MM4739 60 | $1950

Minnie Lumai represents an area of her traditional country, Bubble Community – Dumbaral located east of Newry Statin in the Kimberley. Minnie Lumai was born there in 1941 and is named after the freshwater spring that gently bubbles with the sound of her name – lu-mai, lu-mai, lu-mai. Her art demonstrates an energy that is at once energetic and serene. In this painting, Bubble Spring starts in the upper right and flows through towards the Keep River. At the centre of the image is a rockhole called Jaljan. Minnie says “This place is for Catfish Dreaming and a good fishing place...My paintings are about the stories of my Country and culture – the way the land is from the dreaming and where we travel to hunt and fish.”

MoyurrurraWununjmurra Moyurrurra Wununjmurra Baliny â&#x20AC;&#x201C; larrakitj 2017, earth pigments on stringybark hollow pole, 185 x 14cm MM4810 | $2900

Moyurrurra Wununjmurra is a Yolngu artist from East Arnhem Land born in 1971. Here she is representing the fish called Baliny or Barramundi. Baliny has other deeper names â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sacred of a secret nature because of reference to the enigmatic nature of a Yirritja Creator Ancestor and the ability for the fish to be androgynous, going upstream, from salt to fresh to spawn and changing its sex. Yonu often depict Baliny in their art as a companion to other ancestral beings including Ganyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tjurr, the Reef heron is a companion. It is the archetypal male Yirritja moiety hunter with stealth and grace. This design places it in the waters of the Dhalwanu clan near Gangan.

Nellie Coulthard

Nellie Coulthard was born in 1947 near Oodnadatta, NT on the remote property of the Wintinna Homestead Cattle Station and grew up with her brother in their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wiltja, a hand built shelter made from found materials including sheets of tin, dried logs and branches. Today Nellie she is a respected Pampa (respected senior lady) among both adults and children at the Indulkana community. Nellieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings recall the country of the eastern desert lands - the rolling sand hills of the Simpson desert, and the songlines that connect the rockholes and creeks. Abundant with deep swimming holes and soakages the country is also notable for its stands of beautiful tjuntala (acacia) hat bring luminous colour to the sandy and rocky landscape.

Nellie Coulthard Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2019, acrylic on linen, 167 x 101cm MM4764 | $4200

Norm Stewart

Norm Stewart is a Yorta Yorta and Kwat Kwat man born in 1958 who works with Kaiela Arts, Shepparton. His great, great grandfather was the famous 19th century artist Tommy McRae who originated from around the area where Corowa/Wahgunyah is today. Norm and his siblings were taken from their grandmother to become wards of the state of Victoria in 1965. He spent several years in an institution before being released back to family. During his school years he says he enjoyed the art classes but never took it to seriously until later in life, when he began to reconnect with his heritage through art – being inspired by the pen and ink sketches of colonial Aboriginal life by his great, great grandfather Tommy McRae This carved shield is of the Yorta Yorta/ Kwat Kwat people and of which Norm says: “The traditional marks refer to our country -the fresh water country of the DungalaMurray River”.

Norm Stewart Yalaba Yalaba 2 2020, wooden shield, 97cm (l) x 10cm(w) x 2cm(h) MM4933 | $1900

Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri Budgerigah Etching on paper, Warlayirti Suite, 59 x 39cm (image size), 4/30 MM4461 | $1300 (framed)

This etching was one of the well- known Warlayrti Suite of original prints created by the artists of Balgo at Northern Editions print studio, CDU Darwin. Born in 1949 at Sturt Creek Station in the NT , Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri worked as a stockman across the NT and Kimberley before setting at Balgo with his wife, painter Marie Mudgedell. A renowned cultural leader, here Patrick represents some of his country east of Balgo around Tanami Downs Station. The main feature of the painting is the Budgerigah Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) associated with Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skin group; Tjapaltjarri. The U shapes represent the budgerigah singing as it travels throughout the country searching for food.

PeggyMadijarroongGriffiths Peggy Madijarroong Griffiths Jalin-Beasley Knob 2018, natural ochre and pigments on canvas, 60 x 60cm MM3843 | $1980

Born in 1950 on Newry Station, award winning Miriwoong artist Peggy Madijarroong Griffiths was married to the artist and senior cultural leader the late Alan Griffiths for more than 50 years. The couple became famed artists and cultural mentors of Waringarri Arts, Kununurra. Jalin- Beasley Knob is an area of Peggyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traditional country. In the dreaming Jalin the plains kangaroo a Miriwoong man, and Nyangood - the hill kangaroo a Gajirrbeng man, had been arguing at a place called Yab-yab-gnerni-gnim about the ownership of country. This hill represents the place where Jalin and Nyangood separated company.

Peggy lives here now; she says this place is still unspoilt and the same as it used to be when people came here to hunt and camp. During station times Peggy and her family used to go on hunting trips here, camping at one of the many billabongs and then on to Bubble Springs before going back to work on Newry Station. In the background, Peggy has depicted an ant hill and another large hill on her Country surrounded by clusters of spinifex.

Rosalind Tjanyari & Priscilla Singer Rosalind Tjanyari

This collaborative painting is by mid generation Yankunyatjra painter Rosalind Tjanari and senior Pitjantjatjara woman Priscilla Singer. Both living at Indulkana in the APY Lands of SA and practising artists in their own right, they have, since 2019, collaborated on a number of canvases that portray different aspects of their histories and culture. Here each weaves their own richly embedded portrayal of Ngura or Country as a place to which someone belongs and which defines family connections, skin groups, and language as well as personal stories and memories of country. Iconography of significant elements within the desert landscape such as rock holes, underground springs, mountain and rock formations, and sacred sites are meticulously recorded from memory, and often depicted from an aerial perspective.

Priscilla Singer

Rosalind Tjanyari & Priscilla Singer Ngura (Country) 2020, acrylic on linen, 152 x 198cm MM4892 | $5200

Rosalind Tjanyari & Priscilla Singer Rosalind Tjanyari

This collaborative painting is by mid generation Yankunyatjra painter Rosalind Tjanari and the senior Pitjantjatjara woman Priscilla Singer. Both living at Indulkana in the APY Lands of SA and practising artists in their own right, they have collaborated since 2019 on a number of canvases that portray different aspects of their histories and culture. Rosalind’s mother and grandmother were famous ngangkari (traditional healers) and Rosalind spent her youth travelling with them to visit family and friends in need of healing. Her paintings allude to the healing energy of this ‘spirit country’ as she encompasses the desert landscape, its hidden pathways and the ﬂuidity of its peoples’ movement and journeys.

Priscilla Singer

Priscilla Singer weaves her own richly embedded portrayals of Ngura or country as a place to which someone belongs and which defines family connections, skin groups, and language as well as personal stories and memories of country. Iconography of significant elements within the desert landscape such as rock holes, underground springs, mountain and rock formations, and sacred sites are meticulously recorded from memory, and often depicted from an aerial perspective.

Rosalind Tjanyari & Priscilla Singer Ngura Kuuti (Spirit Country) 2019, acrylic on linen, 122 x 152cm MM4690 | $3200

Susan Wanji Wanji Susan Wanji Wanji Jarrakalani 2017, ochre on linen, 120 x 80cm MM3867 | $3700

Born in 1955 at Liverpool River, NT. Susan Wanji Wanji is a leading artist wit Munupi Arts, Tiwi Islands. She grew up in Maningrida and became a noted weaver and bark painter. Susan started working at Munupi Arts in 1990 and has since developed a unique style that has influence from both Tiwi and Arnhem Land cultures. Her art is represented in many national as well as international collections. This painting depicts her childhood when she â&#x20AC;&#x153;used to go hunting with the elders. We would hunt for fish, turtle, crab, yam, and mud mussels - or any bush tucker that was there. My father took us out in an old canoe. We made Tunga (basket) from bark and bush string and carried it on our shoulder or put the strap across the top of our head, this made it easy to throw our bush tucker over our shoulder into the Tunga, especially the big yams!â&#x20AC;?

TeresaPumaniMulaPimangka Teresa Pumani Mula Pimangka Seven Sisters Tjukurrpa 2020, acrylic on linen, 101 x 101cm MM4832 | $2200

Teresa Pumani is a senior cultural woman of the Mimili community who paints the Kunkarunkara Tjukurpa (Seven Sisters Creation Story). This Tjukurpa is about the constellations of Pleiades and Orion. The sisters are constellation of Pleiades and the other star Orion is said to be Nyiru or Nyirunya (described as a bad, untrustworthy man). For Teresa, the story is “about family looking after each other, and teaching and helping each other. The women being followed by a bad man, but the older sisters are looking after the younger ones.” Teresa herself has four daughters - including the talented emerging star artist Anita Pumani. The family sometimes work together on large paintings of elling the Kunkarunkara Tjukurpa. She says: “That’s our way- working together and looking after one another.”

Watson Corby Tjungurrayi Watson Corby Tjungurrayi Kalipinypa Tjukurrpa 2019, acrylic on linen, 183 x 152cm MM5001 | $7900

Born in 1973 at Papunya, NT, Watson Corby Tjungurrayi is the son of leading early Papunya Tula painter David Corby Tjapaljarri and grandson of one of the founding artists of Papunya Tula, the master â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;water dreamingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; painter John Warangkula Tjupurrula. Watson has the rights to paint the rain dreaming story of his grandfather at Kalipinypa in the Western Desert. As with his grandfather, Watson has a highly innovative and distinctive style in his interpretation of the rain and hail making ceremony at this important creation site. During creation times, ancestral forces were invoked to bring on a powerful storm with lightning, thunderclouds and rain sending a deluge to rejuvenate the earth, filling the rock holes, clay pans and creeks and creating new life and growth upon the land.

Today the Nakamarra, Tjakamarra, Napurrula and Tjupurrula men and women are the custodians of this important Water Dreaming site and celebrate its stories in the ceremonies. Watson says that the lines represent the water travelling into the waterholes and the dots represent the rain drops and the hail stones brought by the storm.

Wulu Marawili Wulu Marawili Mikariny Muluminya Yathikpa – larrakitj 2018, earth pigments on stringybark hollow pole, 167cm MM4817 | $2500

Wulu Marawili is a younger generation East Arnhem Land carver of larrakitj (ceremonial poles) and yidaki (didjeridu) who has inherited the rights to paintings from many generations. This work depicts the saltwater country of Yathikpa where actions of Baru the Ancestral Crocodile and Hunters Burrak and Garramatji took place. It involves the hunters hunting for crocodile in dangerous waters – mistakenly striking rock with their harpoon and causing the Ancestral Fires to flare and boil the waters. This caused the canoe to capsize with the hunters drowning – their harpoon left floating with the tides between various clan estates. . Fire had its origins at Yathikpa and was first ‘carried’ by Baru the Ancestral Crocodile who took it to sea. Fire represents a profound knowledge that takes wisdom and courage to handle correctly. If you go there, the message reads, be prepared for danger, be prepared for confrontation with the cunning and power of the crocodile and the peril of irrational seas that can boil with fire. 76

Yurpiya Lionel

Yurpiya is a senior artist from Ernabella Arts in the APY Lands of South Australia. She was born in 1960 at the homeland Donald’s Well about 45 kms east of Ernabella. She is the daughter of the late Pantjti Lionel, a very senior Pitjantjatjara woman and artist. In 2004 Yurpiya started painting at Ernabella Arts and is also an accomplished weaver and fibre sculptor. Yurpiya’s main painting theme is that of the Caterpillar (Anumara) Dreaming story of her mother’s country near the homeland community of Kanpi near the WA/NT/SA borders. She depicts the tracks of the caterpillars as they weave under and over the ground in fine linear fashion. Anumara is also the name for a kind of caterpillar and Anumara is the tjukurpa (dreaming) place for this caterpillar. This caterpillar lives in the grass and can be eaten if the grass it eats is removed. The place shares the same colours of the caterpillar brown, yellow and pale green. Keeping this place safe will ensure that the caterpillars multiply.

Yurpiya Lionel Anumara 2020, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 165cm MM4963 | $3700

EVERYWHEN Artspace specialises in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art featuring paintings, barks, ochres, ceramics, sculptures and works on paper from 40 + Aboriginal art centres from around Australia. Directors Susan McCulloch OAM and Emily McCulloch Childs.

EVERYWHEN Artspace 39 Cook Street, Flinders VIC 3929 T: +61 3 5989 0496 E: info@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au mccullochandmcculloch.com.au