Acrylic on Canvas

51 x 75cm

I hadn’t been back to Yuin country for 20yrs.  One night my Nan came to me in a dream and placed a bundle of energy into my hands and told me to keep my children in their culture of dance and art. After that dream and thinking what Nan said, I started drawing this oval pattern. It was how I felt after that dream. So, I took my kids back and kept drawing this pattern at camp on the South Coast. The pattern is the energy, it is movement. And it all makes sense looking at family in the bush, camping and their movements. They are at home, they are relaxed and tuned in to the natural way of life.

Acrylic on Canvas

75 x 51cm

This painting represents the backbone in country...our rivers. Our river system is important to us all. Back in the day our people would travel along the rivers to get to places or ceremonies. We used the river to teach the young how to hunt in its calm still waters before they head to the lakes and ocean to hunt. We gathered yams berries along the banks, swim and wash. Here I have marked the spots we’d go to along the Tuross River. This is our Great Nans husband’s country. The coolamon represents the food gathered, carrying baby's and making bread and making the coolamon.

Acrylic on Canvas

51 x 75cm

We come from one of the oldest living cultures in this world. This painting represents our ancestors, us now and our future generations. We are all a spirit in a shell. Spirits live on forever on this timeless land which is so alive.

Acrylic on Canvas

85 x 65cm

Djiraali ’blood’, Muriyira ‘whale’ is the translation in our dhurga language. Way back before early settlement of the few headlands around from Twofold Bay Eden, our people continued to perform whale ceremony with surrounding tribes.  Here the orca whales would round up a whale to beach itself and the orcas were rewarded with the tongue of the beached whale. This happened for thousands of years, we are told. Davisons whaling station was built in early settlement time and our Great Grandfather worked at the station with other Yuin men. I sit on the beach of Twofold Bay and think of those whales that were killed there, blood seeping through the sand. This painting represents the whales that were killed, our culture & colonisation.

Acrylic on Canvas

69 x 90cm

As a family children we spent hours and hours on the edge of the ocean, and we children played in the rock pools.  It is here where that we learned about what lives in these rock pools, what we could catch, or be bitten by! My favourite was the Red Waratah Anemone with its pretty red frillies all opened and undisturbed, until our little fingers would poke them and get sucked by them.

Acrylic on Canvas

69 x 90cm

Growing up with our Katungal (sea people) family, going to so many coastlines from La Perouse to Wallaga Lake, we remember these places so well because we spent hours and hours on these rocks. Some places we’d climb down massive cliffs with our Great Nan. She’d be in slippers sliding down with us, yell out to her grandsons to collect crabs for her bait, and she’d sit in the one spot pulling in groper after groper. For us young ones, we only had the rockpools to cool down in, cool our drinks in, play with the caught fish left in the bloody murky rockpool water, or learn how to catch baby crabs.

Acrylic on Canvas

90 x 69 cm

I hadn’t been back to Yuin country for 20yrs, one night my Nan came to me in a dream and gave me a bundle of energy into my hands and told me to keep my children in their culture dance and art. After that dream and thinking what Nan said I started drawing this oval pattern. The pattern is energy, it is movement,  it all makes sense looking at family in the bush camping and their movements. They are home, they are relaxed and tuned in to the natural way of life for them. When I visually see this energy and movement, an uncle happens to be beside me saying ‘yes we see this spiritual thing here on country’.

Acrylic on Canvas

69 x 90cm

Being Katungal ‘Sea People’, our family did everything around the ocean. We are divers, fishermen, we prawn by night. We are aware of the dangers too. This painting is about our life as sea people and the dangers we had to be aware of.  We collected conks, periwinkles, pippies, oysters, and wild mussels. Our men dived for abalone (walkamara) and lobster. We fished off the rocks for the much prized groper, bream, snapper, flathead, salmon, dewfish and mullet. They also caught Mud and Blue Swimmer crabs. All this comes with the natural dangers of rough and unpredictable seas, sharks, eels, jellyfish, high and low tides and the vast changes in weather conditions of our South Coast. For generations we’ve been taught about the dangers of the ocean and surroundings and how to safely navigate and collect our seafood. So this painting represents all these dynamics and all the places in Yuin country that we go to hunt our great oceans bounty.

Acrylic on Canvas

69 x 90 cm

One of my many memories of our Great Grandmother, is sitting around the fire with our family on the cool white sand at night under the clear bright night sky at Brou Lake. We would sing or listen to our people tell the stories of our ancestors while gazing at the fire.

Acrylic on Canvas

69 x 90cm

I think of Gulaga mountain and her story. It is from Gulaga we draw our lore, language, Dreamtime  and our creation stories.  This is a time in my life now of ‘full circle’.  I recently became a Nan myself, and I find myself often reflecting and thinking of all of the Nans I grew up with and all the children they birthed, nurtured and raised.
None were stolen nor taken away. Our Nans were smart, strong and protective. Our Earth is our mother, we are born from our mother - Mothers Love.

Acrylic on Canvas

81 x 100cm

Our Great Nan, Muriel Pearl Stewart’s (nee Cooley) totem is the ‘black duck’ translated in our dhurga language. We call the ‘wambarra’ the ‘bird protector’ for our Yuin People. Our Nan born in Milton, became the first Aboriginal Justice of the Peace in the 1960’s. She worked tirelessly helping our people get the best health medical education and housing. Nan was on the first Aboriginal Advisory Committee and Aboriginal Lands Trust. This painting represents our country ancestors and Yuin colour-turquoise.

Acrylic on Canvas

90 x 90cm

I come from a strong line of Yuin people. My Great, Great, Grandparents had the last tribal marriage here on south coast. My Nans father was born on Gulaga mountain. He belongs to one of the largest families on the South Coast. This painting is about my Great grandparents and their children.

Acrylic on Canvas

100 x 81 cm

Triangles represent who I am and my connection to this land and our ancestors. Gulaga is our sacred mountain, she is a pregnant woman, and it is where all life began for us Yuin People. The triangles all connect, they represent the land markings (boundaries) e.g., hills, mountains, rivers, creeks, estuaries, coastlines, gullies etc. The triangles also represent the parent & child, male & female and all living things on and in the land. The triangles also represent the day/night and the universe. Amongst the lines lives the spiritual energy of our songlines in Yuin country.

Acrylic on Canvas

90 x 90

Being at the river in Walbanja-Yuin country and we admire these untouched places but I also think about the hidden tiniest things underneath all the rocks in and out of the river.

Acrylic on Canvas

90 x 90 cm

Here we have this small tern bird protecting her eggs on the sand at Dalmeny beach. Her cries are drowned out by the noise of the waves and people, we stopped to make a barrier for her eggs so that people can see and not destroy. This is common to see on the beaches here. We open our eyes to our surroundings and protect those so small yet so important.

Acrylic on Canvas

100 x 100 cm

There are many different types of beaches, this depends on the size of the sand grain. Mainly made up of quartz, silica and other minerals, sand is transgressive and comes in many different colours. Our ancestors travelled up and down the South Coast NSW sleeping on the sandy riverbanks and the warm sand at the beaches. Our rivers here on the south coast including the Tuross River is made up of sand which comes from eroded banks. Sand holds our artefacts, ancestors are buried amongst sand dunes, sand is home to many sea creatures. Sand stimulates our senses such as touch, sight, and smell. Sand also exfoliates dead skin from our bodies. Djaadjawan is a ‘dhurga’ word from the Walbanj-Yuin tribe.

Acrylic on Canvas

150 x 250 cm

Ganama ‘Burning' Began ‘Country’ is the translation in our dhurga language.  We’ve grown up hearing our family talk about how country needs burning for regeneration and cultivation. It hadn’t been done for so many years. When I came back down from the North Coast seeing the massive black smoke as I came into Milton, I felt the happiness of my Great Nans spirit for this great burn. I also felt sad for those people who lost their lives, homes that were destroyed and the poor animals whose habitats had been completely obliterated. But this is what we have been hearing for so long, ‘country needs burning’. This painting represents the burning country and the energy lines, this is the earth breathing & releasing, regenerating and re birthing.

Acrylic on Canvas

2 x 1.5m