Wanina Biddee Bonney, Biddy Baadjo, Kuji Rosie Goodijee, Luurn Willie Kew, Yangkarni Penny K-Iyons, Nada Rawlins, Jill Jack, Janie Lee, Mayapu Elsie Thomas, Juknja Nora Tjookootja, George Tuckerbox
We bin born in the bush
2005
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Measurements
204.3 × 279.7 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Ben and Helen Korman through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2018
Gallery location
Gallery 1
Ground Level, NGV Australia
About this work
Eleven artists from Wangkatjungka community painted this collaborative work, which depicts significant waterholes from their traditional lands in the Great Sandy Desert. Most of the artists were children when their parents joined the great exodus of families out of the Great Sandy Desert in the mid twentieth century. Wangkatjungka people had their first major contact with Europeans in 1906, when Alfred Canning led a survey team into the Western Australian desert to survey what is now known as the Canning Stock Route. This painting is a statement of connection between the traditional owners and the chains of waterholes that underpinned life for the Wangkajunga people of the Great Sandy Desert.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed (inverted) in pencil on top u.l.: Rosie Goodijee
inscribed (inverted) in pencil on top u.c.: Biddy Baadjo
inscribed(inverted) in pencil on top u.c.r.: Elsie Thomas
inscribed (inverted) in pencil on top u.r.: Nada Rawlins
inscribed (vertically) in pencil on left side c.: Willie Kew
inscribed (inverted) in pencil on base l.l.: Tjookootja
inscribed (vertically) in pencil on right side c.: George T(…illeg.)
inscribed (vertically) in pencil on right side l.c.: Jill Jack
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.l.: WJ 1727
inscribed (vertically) in blue fibre-tipped pen on reverse c.l.: WJ 172 / COLLABORATION / WANGKATJUNGKA ARTISTS
Accession Number
2018.765
Department
First Nations Australia