About this artwork

This print shows country called Lagoowany on Tableland Station near Derby, WA. This is the artist’s grandfather’s country and is associated with the Ant Bed (edible termite grub) Dreaming. In the Dreamtime, some old women were gathering Ant Bed from the termite mounds (shown at the lower left and right). They put it in a big coolamon to dry out. In traditional law, Ant Bed was women’s food and men were forbidden to eat it. Two young men were out hunting and sneaked up to the place the old women left the Ant Bed. They stole the Ant Bed and took it to a big flat stone. They started grinding it on the stone. But that stone was not a stone. It was the head of Woonggol the Rainbow Snake who is also called Gerriring. When they ground the Ant Bed, the head started rocking. Water came out of the sides of the stone and rain clouds (the three motifs in the centre) gathered in the sky. More and more clouds came and made a strong wind. Gilbany, the rasp tailed goanna, came down from a hill (shown at the lower left) to warn the boys. He hit them with his tail to get their attention and ran back up the hill. He wanted to save them but they took no notice. The rain came pouring down and hailstones fell and hit the two boys everywhere. They couldn’t run anywhere and the flat stone sand as the water rose. The boys and the old women were all drowned. Today there is a spring (the circle at the lower centre) where the stone sank into the ground. It is a permanent waterhole where the artist and her family used to camp. There are palm and fig trees (shown either side) growing there. Above the spring are hills of Lagoowany country and at the top are Barranyi, the Wilson Range on Bedford Downs Station.