Ngarrindjeri

Born 1947, Swan Reach, South Australia

Resides Barmera, South Australia

Ian Abdulla is an artist of considerable national repute. He has had many solo exhibitions at galleries throughout Australia. His work has also been included in numerous important group exhibitions, including those that have toured widely, both in Australia and internationally. He won the award for best painting at the 1996 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art Awards.

Ian’s works are largely biographical and tell of his experiences of life on the Murray River in direct narrative form, usually incorporating a written story into the image. As well as being biographical, these images and their accompanying stories encompass statements about social and environmental changes to the Murray River and its communities.

Ian says that his children have been his inspiration for his art. He paints to teach them and tell them his stories but he also acknowledges the ways in which he can learn from them.

Synthetic polymer

paint on canvas

95 x 123 cm

Collection of Artist

Djadjawurung / Yorta Yorta

Born 1965, Echuca, Victoria

Resides Mellool, Victoria

Rodney worked for a time at the Melbourne Museum where he was able to study the artefacts from his country. He drew on this to produce a possum skin cloak reflecting the designs and symbols from an original Murray River cloak in the Museum’s collection. The designs painted on the individual panels are based on river images, fish traps in lagoons, basket designs, camping symbols and river areas. Originally the designs would have been made by putting pigment into marks scored into the dry and hardened possum skins. In this work Rodney has painted his designs onto the skins with synthetic paint, and has designed the possum skins in a geometric panel.

Possum skins, synthetic

polymer paint

155cm x 153cm

Collection of the Artist

Ngarrindjeri

Born 1944, Widinna, South Australia

Resides Berri, South Australia

Yvonne Koolmatrie is an artist with a well established international reputation. She has been at the forefront of the rediscovery and contemporary development of the strong weaving traditions of the Aboriginal people of the Murray River. She teaches traditional weaving to her family and other interested people as well as following her own practice. She sees her teaching as a very important part of keeping culture and traditions alive and thriving. As well as making weavings referencing traditional utilitarian forms, such as fish and eel traps, Yvonne also weaves mats, animal and other forms. Yvonne’s work is inextricably linked to the Murray River and its surrounds and the strong indigenous cultural heritage of the area.

Yvonne was one of three female indigenous artists selected to represent Australian contemporary art practice at the 1997 Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in numerous major exhibitions both in Australia and overseas.

Sedge rushes

102 x 60 x 60 cm

Collection of the Artist

Gamilaraay

Born 1971, Burke, New South Wales, resides Mildura, Victoria

Much of Lance’s recent work focuses on stories and patterns from his Gamilaraay tribal group from near Bourke in New South Wales. However, in Oak Valley dreaming Lance has drawn on the floral forms, wildflowers and animal patterns from the Pitjantjatjara country around Oak Valley, South Australia in the Victoria Desert. The work refers to the long term impacts of nuclear tests conducted in this area by the British Government some 50 years ago. Lance spent three months working with the Pitjantjatjara community of Oak Valley on a project for the 2002 Adelaide Festival of arts. This is one of a number of paintings done by Lance in response to this experience.

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas

102 x 102 cm

Private Collection

Paakantji

Born 1962, Wentworth, New South Wales

Resides Mildura, Victoria

The spirits of the road is a painting about driving and being watched by spirits. ‘Its kind of spooky when you’re travelling by yourself. I was doing a lot of travelling at the time, around Australia, and this is the image I saw in my travels.’ In Peter’s image the spirits are watching from behind the fence, which he says stops them going over the road like kangaroos do. These are family spirits that take care of the traveller, and look out for them on journeys to make sure they get to their destination.

Peter Peterson has been working as an artist for many years. He is a cultural worker, teaching dancing, painting, and bush tucker knowledge.

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas

51 x 82 cm

Private Collection

Lardil

Born 1969, Meekatharra, Western Australia

Resides Mildura, Victoria

Sonya has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions both locally and internationally, including in Women’s Work Land & Spirit at the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing. This exhibition later toured Europe and Australia. She has also worked on a range of community and public art projects in Melbourne and Mildura.

Synthetic polymer paint on paper

41.1 x 56.4 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1965

Resides Merbein, Victoria

George has been making artefacts for eight years. He was taught on Gerard Mission by Teddy Roberts. He learnt many techniques including how to find and prepare natural materials such as sinew and resin to attach heads of spears to the long narrow carved wooden sticks. George is a descendant of Harry Mitchell on his mother’s side. He has created his own company, named ROMA after his mother Roma (cupidoll) Mitchell.

George works in the area of cultural tourism and writes and recites his poems to entertain and educate the public about Indigenous culture.

Spear - Wood, resin, sinew

256 x 2.5 cm

Fishing spear - 210 x 2.5 cm

Knife spear - 220 x 2.5 cm

Collection of the Artist

Malyangapa

Born 1948, Wilcannia, New South Wales

Resides Mildura, Victoria

Rayleen was born in Wilcannia, New South Wales and spent much of her life on the land. She travelled from station to station following her father in his work, which varied from constructing windmills and woolsheds to fencing and trapping. After marrying, Rayleen continued the live in the bush, working on the land goat hunting and rabbiting with her husband.

Rayleen paints largely from her memories of the landscapes of the areas in which she has travelled – particularly Wilcannia, Ivanhoe, White Cliffs and Lake Cargelligo. Rayleen’s affinity with the bush is evident in her work, which is dominated by the windswept sand hills of the outback and its animals.

Rayleen paints on whatever is at hand at the time – including on the backs of curtains and on over-painted framed pictures, which she buys from opportunity shops.

Synthetic polymer paint on found board

120 x 60 cm

Collection of the Artist

Born 1972, Sydney, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Brian's portrait of BULLDOG (Dennis Williams) became the first of a series of fifteen portrait paintings depicting Aboriginal people born before 1967. They refer to the fact that Aboriginal people were not recognized as citizens but, rather were officially considered as fauna until the referendum of 1967. Brian is drawing on the tradition of formal portraiture used primarily for recording images of important people in the Western world. Brian’s portraits of ordinary people, who were not considered important prior to 1967, present a stark comparison to the manner in which Indigenous people were represented or recorded up until that crucial point in history.

Brian studied visual arts at Sydney University and moved to Broken Hill in 2000 to teach visual arts at the Broken Hill TAFE.

Oil on canvas

180 x 100 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1947, Wilcannia, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Badger Bates (William Brian Bates) was brought up by his extended family and his grandmother Granny Moysey, who spoke several languages and knew many songs and stories. With his grandmother he travelled the country learning about the language, history and culture of the Paakantji people of the Darling River, or Paaka.

Badger works in linoprint, wood, emu egg and stone carving and metalwork. His art reflects the motifs, landform, animals and plants and stories of Paakantji land which includes Mutawintji and the Darling River. When he was about eight years old his grandmother started to teach him to carve emu eggs and make wooden artefacts in the traditional Paakantji style. From her he learnt to carve by ‘feeling through his fingers.’

Badger is best known for his linoprints. This is a medium he adopted when he began to carve lino with the designs he had been carving on emu eggs since he was a child. The new medium enabled him to expand the scope of the designs and present more complicated compositions. The motifs and designs used by Badger are based on the region’s rock engravings, painted and stencilled pigment art and the wavy and geometric designs carved into wooden artefacts.

Linocut print on paper

35.2 x 64.1 cm

Collection of the Artist

Diyari

Born 1944, Tibooburra, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Irene’s recent work includes a series of paintings based on the toas of the Lake Eyre region, an area traditionally occupied and owned by her ancestors. Toas are small sculptural objects that were made in large numbers by the Diyari at Killalpaninna Mission at the beginning of the 20th century. They were described as a being like signposts or direction markers. Each toa directly represents features of the landscape or refers to ancestral figures or stories. Irene has been inspired in her painting by the catalogue of the 1986 South Australian Museum exhibition Art and Land which featured these toas.

Synthetic polymer

paint on canvas

59.8 x 29.8 cm

Collection of the Artist

Synthetic polymer

paint on canvas

59.8 x 29.8 cm

Collection of the Artist

Synthetic polymer

paint on Canvas

59.8 x 29.8 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1970, Wilcannia, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Phillip Bates is Badger Bates’s second eldest son. Phillip was brought up in the country of his Paakantji people from the Paaka, or Darling River, in western New South Wales. Phillip has mixed the traditional and contemporary to create an individual style that portrays his sense of identity and association with the land. His art is an extension of a living oral tradition and is an important way of interpreting, renewing and handing on that tradition.

Phillip’s themes focus on special places, traditional lifestyle and mythological stories. The patterns of the seasons, bush tucker, and special places and their associated stories are important. A strong sense of responsibility for the land and concern about the continuing damage to the environment, particularly the Darling River, comes out in Phillip’s paintings.

Synthetic polymer

paint on canvas

50.5 x 49.5 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1961, Broken Hill, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Debbie is an accomplished linocut artist who studied print making at Broken Hill TAFE and now works mainly from home. Common themes in Debbie’s work are the bogong moth and images of the land, of animals and her memories.

Linocut print on paper

30 x 27.9 cm

Private Collection

Ngiyampaa

Born Wilcannia, New South Wales

Resides Lake Cargelligo, New South Wales

Cattle Muster is a spectacular example of the fine work involved in emu egg carving. Emu egg carving is an old practice and the images and styles used vary greatly between artists. There are fourteen colours in the emu egg which emerge as it is carved layer by layer. Peter’s work demonstrates the skill involved in carving into the fragile egg, and the amount of detail that can be achieved by a skilled artist.

Carved emu egg

13 x 8.5 x 8.5 cm

Private Collection

Paakantji

Born 1920, Broken Hill, New South Wales

Resides Menindee, New South Wales

Lorraine King is the oldest Paakantji elder living on the Darling River today. Lorraine was born in Broken Hill and was raised in Pooncarie. The family was taken to Menindee mission after her father was killed in an accident on the Darling River. At age 14 she was taken ‘for a holiday’ to the Cootamundra Girls Home and trained for house service. She ran away from the home and made her own way, escaping the police and working as a cherry picker in Young. After living in Cowra, Menindee and Lake Cargelligo, Lorraine returned to Menindee with her family in 1966.

Lorraine has permission to collect eggs from National Parks and Wildlife, and her signature on the base of every egg contains her number. Her carvings depict scenes of hunting, and images from memories of a corroboree dance. This pair of eggs features continuous narratives encircling each egg. While these eggs are quite old, they are good examples of the type of works that Lorraine has continued to carve.

Carved emu egg - 12.5 x 8.5 x 8.5 cm

Cooking goanna - 12 x 9 x 9 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1941, Broken Hill, New South Wales

Resides Menindee, New South Wales

Patricia has used the medium of portraiture to explore her family, separated from each other by Government policies, and now recognised as members of the Stolen Generation. Her paintings are based on old family photographs and offer an insight into the family history and memories of her family.

These include: her Grandfather Bill who died in a river accident at Pooncarie; her mother’s brother who was separated from his sisters when they were taken, but who ran away and worked on stations around Menindee, until he eventually settled in Murran Bridge; Patricia’s mother, Lorraine Johnson-King, and her mother’s sister who was taken to Darwin by the ‘Catholic mob’ when she was twelve years old but who returned to settle in Menindee in 1975.

Oil on canvas

55 x 40 cm

Collection of the Artist

Oil on canvas

55 x 40 cm

Collection of the Artist

Paakantji

Born 1969, Broken Hill, New South Wales

Resides Wilcannia, New South Wales

Pam Bugmy has been painting for nearly 10 years. Her paintings are based on moving from the bush to the beaches of the mid North Coast of New South Wales. Pam Bugmy married a Queenslander and has consequently spent a lot of time in on the coast further north. This has had an influence on her painting style and subject matter.

Synthetic polymer

paint on paper

70.4 x 56.5 cm

Collection of the Artist

Yvonne Koolmatrie

Ngarrindjeri

Born 1944, Widinna, South Australia

Resides Berri, South Australia

Chris Koolmatrie

Ngarrindjeri

Born 1967, Tailem Bend, South Australia

Resides Berri, South Australia

On a trip to the Northern Territory to participate in a String Festival in Darwin, Yvonne visited Maningrida in central Arnhem Land where she met many of the skilled weavers from that region. The string used in Duck trap was made in Maningrida and was provided to Yvonne in order to make a piece for the 1997 Venice Biennale exhibition that featured her work, although this piece was not ultimately included in the Venice exhibition.

Yvonne teaches her family how to weave and has encouraged her son to revive net weaving. Duck trap is the result of a collaboration between Yvonne and her son Chris.

Traditionally, nets such as these were used by hunters who forced ducks into flying down into the nets strung across the river by throwing boomerangs, which appear like predatory hawks to the frightened ducks.

Maningrida string

180.5 x 538 x 10 cm

Collection of the Artist

Ngarrindjeri

Born 1939, Adelaide, South Australia

Resides Glossop, South Australia

Emily Meyer in a Ngarrindjeri elder who learnt to weave from her step father’s mother, Gran Rita Mason and Rita’s sister, Gwendoline Wilson. Emily made Baby basket from memory, using techniques shown to her by Gran Rita. She says of Rita, ‘Years ago you know they just done what they want with Aboriginal people, she was put in a mental institution. When she got out she used to weave, from the age of 8, 9, 10,and 11 I was watching Rita, learning.’

Baby basket is based on the Biblical story of the cradle of baby Moses. Emily lived at Swan Reach Mission where missionary teachings about the church, bible study, reading and writing were very influential. She say the mission was a big part of their life and that ‘Blackfellas are religious people naturally.’

Sedge grass

31 x 70 x 42 cm

Private Collection

Born 1972, Swan Hill, Victoria

Resides Berri, South Australia

Michelle is an accomplished weaver. Originally from Swan Hill she has joined Yvonne Koolmatrie in Berri where she assists her and learns the weaving techniques.

Sedge grass

22.6 x 30 x 18 cm

Collection of the Artist

Ngarrindjeri

Born 1918, Rabbit Island, South Australia

Resides Cooltong, South Australia

Connie is the oldest Ngarrindjeri elder in the Riverland and Coorong. She was born on Rabbit Island in the Coorong and her family travelled widely in South Australia and Victoria with their father in search of work. She has been weaving for the past fourteen years as a student of her daughter Yvonne Koolmatrie.

Coiled basketry scoop is an example of the scoops used to collect fish caught in nets and traps. Women also used scoops to collect small fish in the shallows, as well as yabbies and Murray freshwater crayfish.

Sedge grass

80 x 34 x 14.3 cm

Collection of the Artist

Wadi Wadi

Born 1958, Swan Hill, Victoria

Resides Beverford, Victoria

‘Mitian’ is Wadi Wadi for moon. Doug’s print refers to 200 years of settlement. Doug researched the phases of the moon using the internet and this print shows the present day full moon in the centre, below it is the year of his birth,1958, and above is the year 2058. This work is about time and constant change – in lifetimes, phases of the moon, seasons and nature.

Doug has worked in many areas of cultural heritage. He is rich in knowledge of the river and the connections and storylines of its people. This knowledge is reflected in his artwork and he continues to both protect and teach his cultural heritage.

Wood cut print on paper

57.9 x 23.8 cm

Collection of the Artist

Yorta Yorta

Born 1946, Mooroopna, Victoria

Resides Swan Hill, Victoria

Children’s footprints walked into sifted red sand symbolize the Stolen Generation coming home. Ramptha-Lexie talks of returning from the homes, and the years and journeys it takes to find ones way back. Her family were separated as children. Ramptha-Lexie lived at the Allambi cottages and her five brothers were at the Salvation Army home in Burwood. Eventually Ramptha-Lexie returned to Echuca to live with relations at Cummeragunja mission.

Sand

350 x 350 cm (variable)

Collection of the Artist

Wamba Wamba / Yorta Yorta

Born 1963, Swan Hill, Victoria

Resides Swan Hill, Victoria

Sandry studied etching and printing at Swan Hill TAFE. She produced these images in response to a memory of her grandmother. She remembers a story from her childhood about her grandmother Effie Walsh living on the Maloga Mission in Echuca. Effie’s story is about Ned Kelly and how he came to the mission. Whilst staying there he made her a horse bridle. Her family’s Ned Kelly story has stayed with Sandry and she has drawn on it for these images of Ned.

Etching on paper

18 x 18 cm

Collection of the Artist

Etching on paper

18 x 18 cm

Collection of the Artist

Wiradjuri/Yorta Yorta

Born 1950, Balranald, New South Wales

Resides Kerang, Victoria

Esther began carving emu eggs in 1977 when her father Sam Kirby died. Sam Kirby was well known for his fine carving work and his ability to ‘do anything’ with the eggs. She had learned all his techniques by watching him and took up the carving to keep his name going. Esther’s common subjects are landscapes featuring figures and stories from Aboriginal mythology.

Amongst several other exhibitions, Esther’s work was included in the exhibition Women’s Work Land and Spirit at the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing.

Carved emu egg

12.5 x 8.4 x 8.4 cm

Collection of the Artist

Carved emu egg

12.5 x 8.4 x 8.4 cm

Collection of the Artist

Ngiyampaa

The Rufus River Massacre occurred on a bend of Rufus River at Lake Victoria on 27 August 1841. At least 30 Aboriginal people died, caught in a crossfire between police and overlanders. It concluded a six month long guerrilla war by the Aboriginal people, during which they successfully blocked the overlander route through their land.

Rufus River Massacre is imbued with symbolism and multiple references. The land is mapped from above, showing the Rufus connecting Lake Victoria and the Murray River. The massacre took place where the brown overlanders' road (from Sydney to Adelaide) crossed the Rufus. It is placed at the centre of the Union Jack, the invaders' flag, depicted by the universally recognised Aboriginal cross-hatching technique, but the red, white and blue colours are decidedly untraditional. The crosses of the road/river junction and the Union Jack form the central panel of the triptych.

Synthetic polymer

paint on bark

3 panels

52 x 23, 36.5 x 62.2, 52.8 x 23.5 cm

Private collection

Waradgerie

Born 1962, Swan Hill, Victoria

Resides Echuca, Victoria

Over the past twelve years Lorraine has been re-discovering her childhood environments, namely the mallee and riverine, and acquiring a knowledge of local native and introduced plants and their cultural uses. A heritage of mixed cultures strongly influences Lorraine's art which uses rustic materials, synthetic paint to represent traditional designs, ochre painted on sheets of corrugated iron, coolamons made from scrap iron and dilly bags made from wire netting. Loraine's personal interests in the protection and preservation of the local environment and equality for all people is represented in her art, through the use of recycled materials and symbols of reconciliation.

The language group name Wiradjuri has many spellings. Lorraine has

specifically chosen to use 'Waradgerie', as it is the same spelling as that used by her mother's father Alfred 'Knocker' Williams on the back of his artworks.

Barbed wire, rack

netting, emu feathers

43 x 21 x 14 cm

Private Collection

Yorta Yorta / Madi Madi

Born 1975, Mildura, Victoria

Resides Melbourne, Victoria

Craig Charles was born in Mildura and went on to study visual arts at the La Trobe University campus there. Since graduating in 1998 he has pursued a successful art career exhibiting in a number of solo and group exhibitions that have been seen throughout Australia.

In 1996 Craig won the ‘Outstanding Koori Student’, Victoria Training Award. He used the prize arising from this to travel to Indigenous American communities throughout the United States.

Craig’s work draws heavily on his relationships with his family and his indigenous cultural heritage. His work also contains strong references to the land around the Murray River.

Paper, shellac, gold leaf, pva, synthetic

polymer paint on six fresco panels

30 x 30 cm each Collection of the Artist