Purlta Maryanne Downs (c1945-2010) My Country, 2008 Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Size: 90 x 90 cm (stretched) ID: #1343/08
Price: $2950





    About this artwork

    In my country lays a living waterhole surrounded by a big rock called Eagle Hole, our dinner camp area.

    About Purlta Maryanne Downs (c1945-2010)

    Language: Walmajarri Country: Kurtal, Great Sandy Desert Kumanjayi [deceased] Downs was born at Kurtal Jila [permanent waterhole], near Kururrungku (Billiluna). When she was a young girl she walked a long way with her mother to Paruku (Lake Gregory). Following this when she was still young, she walked again with her parents to Louisa Downs Station. Before Kumanjayi Downs passed away, she told this story: When we go out bush we get all kinds of food. We get food for the kids like makaparla [bush banana]. We find a tree and sometimes we argue, ā€œThis is my treeā€, ā€œNo itā€™s mineā€. Sometimes we get yams. We used to dig for them ourselves, without our mother. We learnt how to find any kind of food in the bush. My sister taught me to dig up yams and to hunt goanna. When we were hungry away from our mother we looked around for food. We would find possum and sometimes at night, echidna or bandicoot. Sometimes Jinny and her husband would dig a yam and leave it in the ground covered up. We would come behind and pick it up. We kids would share it. We would eat it raw. Then those two would come back and they would look around for their yam. Jinny would call out, ā€œWhereā€™s my food?ā€ She would look around but she couldnā€™t find that yam. Then she knew that we had eaten it. She called us the greedy ones. This happened when we were walking from Billiluna. My sister taught me everything about hunting. We carried water in a coolamon on our heads. My mother taught me how to cook on the fire. She was cheeky and used to hit me but sometimes I was naughty too. I first started painting at Karrayili Adult Education Centre. We sewed clothes and tried to write with the first teacher. We started painting but we didnā€™t paint our country. We painted nothing at first. We used mud sometimes to make pots. We also made coolamons and other things. PAINTING THEMES: Ngarrangkarni (Dreamtime) stories Jilji (sandhills) in the Great Sandy Desert Kurtal jila (permanent waterhole) Yutamaral jila Palya jila AWARDS: 1997: Works on Paper Prize, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award COLLECTIONS: Art Gallery of NSW National Gallery of Victoria National Gallery of Australia Charles Darwin University, NT Murdoch University Fitzroy Crossing High School Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth