Artist Bio
Check out more information on dreamtime art
and healing at the
Wandjina Aboriginal Art Gallery
Kookaburra Dreaming
Acrylic on cotton
At night, the kookaburra slept in a hole in an old gum
tree and dreamt about the snakes and worms and lizards he would find the
next day.
As the suns rays gently touched the gum tree in the early morning, the
kookaburra chuckled about the dreams he had, and went about his day finding
food.
He came across some children also out looking for snakes and lizards for
breakfast.
They were scrambling in the dust trying to get a small lizard out of the
hole it ran into to hide, and were making a lot of noise and making clouds
of dust, which upset the Brown Snake who lived under a rock near where the
children were digging.
Ghadi, the Brown Snake started to chase the children, but the dust cloud
wasn’t big enough for the kookaburra to not see him.
Suddenly, the children’s auntie ran into the clearing to see what the noise
was, and was just in time to see the kookaburra taking off with the snake,
and the children still running away from it in the dust.
The kookaburra beat the snake on a tree limb, ate it, and burst into a huge
laugh.
The old auntie thanked it for killing ghadi, who had been after her
children, and said to the kookaburra ‘From now on, when the suns rays start
to cover the land, if you fly around our campsites and wake us up with your
laugh, we will go out looking for food, and draw the snakes out so you can
have a big breakfast’
And, to this day, the kookaburra’s laugh can be heard around all the
campsites at the break of day, and sometimes, he still comes in for
breakfast.
Price: $2,500.00
email for inquiries
Acrylic on cotton
Koockard the goanna had been wandering the beaches and forests of Warran
since the creation, and had become tired from all the walking looking for
food. He was getting old, and a little bit lazy, but still had the sharp
mind of his youth.
He was living in a forest growing near the ocean, and was getting lonely, as
well as hungry.
Then, into his forest came a wandering tribe looking for food with their
firesticks, burning the forest so they could catch all the slow animals and
have a corroboree on the beach with a big campfire.
Koockard had seen this behaviour before, when he was young, and knew the
tribe had a fondness for eating goanna.
So, instead of running from the mob, he decided to do a deal with them to
save his life. He knew that the fat from the goanna was used as a healing
oil by the mobs, and the mobs needed to find goanna fat to fix certain
sicknesses.
Koockard waited till the mob had surrounded him, then rose on all four legs,
and spoke to the mob in their language.
This caused a certain excitement among the tribesmen, as they had always
been told the dreamtime story of the sacred goanna and its magic to heal.
They froze in their tracks, thinking the goanna was a evil spirit in the
scrub.
Koockard spoke slowly, and offered the mob a deal they could not refuse.
“ I am getting old and more hungry every day, but I still have great magic “
“If you mob take me as your totem, and let me feed on the scraps from your
firestick harvesting, I will give your mob some of my magic, and show you
how to heal the sicknesses the goanna family can fix"
The opportunity to be asked by the healing goanna to share some of his magic
needed little consultation between the elders of the mob, and they decided
to trade the scraps from their firestick farming for the magic of the goanna
healing.
Koockard said ‘ gather around in a circle and I will give you the energy to
heal, and the right to be called the Koockard mob, and to use my totem and
magic, and pass it to your children.
And Koockard the goanna followed the mob and has an easy time finding enough
food to continually give his magic to the Koockard mob.
Price: $2,500.00
email for inquiries
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY/STATEMENT
Born in a small south western NSW town called Jerilderie,
where my father was a stockman in charge of a large Sheep station, Bungaw.
The Youngest of 6 siblings. My art started very young as we traveled quite a
lot, mainly around small NSW towns. I was a very shy child, I didn't like
going out to play. I would much rather stay at home and be content in
creating my own world with my art. I won a prize in a school art contest
held at the Cowra art gallery when I was about 9...for a picture I painted
of the Taj Mahal which my teacher encouraged me to paint. My art was always
acknowledged by my teachers. My style of art was never any one style...but a
diverse assortment from aboriginal art to painting country scenes, even
painting plastic cups with different patterns. My Mother even today still
encourages my art, saying I have a gift of colours and that I am able to put
stories down with my art for a reason. To share our peoples lives and
history with anyone who wants to know.
So my aboriginal art was always more of a spiritual tool
rather than just an art. Anyone can paint a pretty picture. BUT to paint a
story that teaches ... There is no other feeling I know like this.
My love of aboriginal dream time stories started when I used to visit my
mothers families from the Cowra Aboriginal mission, Erambie. The elders
would sit around at night telling stories of long ago and of our people, the
Wiradjuri tribe. My favorite stories were of the Bunyip.. My mother always
had a lot to tell us...yarn time, as she calls it. I love painting the
country area around Cowra. The bacchant Valley is so beautiful with it's
mountains and creeks, and even some natural waterfalls and dams etc So I
always painted trees and plants and loved painting the animals. BUT I feared
we did not visit enough, as my father and mother moved a lot. BUT I did get
to see a lot of the NSW australian bushland. SO much beauty in the bush,
colours, and smells. I would never be able to leave it for long. I need to
be where I am now, in nature.
Check out more information on dreamtime art
and healing at the
Wandjina Aboriginal Art Gallery
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