"Wandjina Are Watching"

Size: 60 x 60cm

Medium: Natural ochre and pigment on canvas, kapok leaves

Artist: Munyee

Code: K02160-24

Story:

Wandjina watches over the three Tribes, Wunambal, Wororra, and the Ngarinyin.
Wandjina makes the monsoon rain, that’s when it will rain day and night, we call it the (wunjuu) rain.
Are of Wandjina’s gathering and my mark is of all our tribes people gathered around the campfire for
meals and holding discussions.

Artist Biography:

 I grew up in Wyndham with my mother, Janet Gallagher, my brothers Phillip (dec) and Willy, our stepfather/dad Thomas Marshall, our extended Gallagher and O’Reeri families, especially her parents Jack and Winnie Gallagher. My grandfather Jack was a half-cast Bilinarra man, Traditional Owner Pigeon Hole/Wave Hill, Victoria River District area of the Northern Territory, half Aboriginal and half Irish and the oldest to his mother, he was my best friend, my protector and biggest support. My grandmother Winnie was full blood Aboriginal Traditional Owner of Karunjie/Chamberlain George (El Questro) on the Gibb River Road here in Western Australia.
Growing up at Guda Guda was fun, challenging but overall shaped me into the resilient person I am today.
I would run across the road with my brothers and cousins, play in the mud, steal eggs, baby ducklings during the wet season from the marsh, and explore the tops of the hills leading into Wyndham. Only having campfire or a kerosene lamp for lighting, camping under the stars, walking a kilometre up the road to turn the windmill to pump out the water, having meals cooked by campfire or on a wood stove oven still makes me smile today. And even though we spent holidays at times in Broome with our father, we knew our place was in Wyndham, so to be called Nyul Nyul would not sit right with me.
Art for me is an escape, a space where I can create, think, and be at peace and it also gives me pride in doing something that my ancestors have done- and most probably witnessed.