Ochre Dreaming: Stories from the East Kimberley

The ReDot gallery is proud to welcome back the natural ochre artworks of the famous Warmun Art Centre. After a very successful 1st exhibition in June 2008, the unique canvases of this Kimberley community will again be gracing the walls of the Gallery as we reignite interest in the lands surrounding Turkey Creek in the East Kimberley’s, far Northeast of Western Australia.

Warmun, home to leading indigenous artists Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, Hector Jandany and Jack Britten has long been recognized as a ‘trend setter’ in the bustling world of modern Aboriginal art. The art centre, established in 1998, has quickly become a “must see” stop on any outback journey.

The dream of the older artists, particularly Queenie and Hector, was to open an art centre at Warmun to provide greater opportunities for the development of younger Gija artists, as well as opportunities to communicate their culture to tourists in the region. This did not happen easily at the start as the art centre struggled to overcome the deaths of these iconic early painters and law people, and the promotion of newer emerging artists proved difficult and often forlorn.

Over this decade, and especially in the last few years, the fruit of the community’s hard work has started to bear wonderful fruit. When Mabel Juli was interviewed in July 2000 she commented on Queenie McKenzie’s commitment to establishing an art centre at Warmun. “That was the dream of that old lady to make people happy with all the art.”

The subsequent years have seen this dream become a reality by the active pursuit of this goal by senior artists such as Lena Nyadbi, Patrick Mung Mung, Shirley Purdie, Jock Mosquito, Madigan Thomas, Gordon Barney, Mick Jawalji, Churchill Cann, Betty Carrington and Mabel herself! ALL now feature in major collections of indigenous artworks around the world and Lena adorns the walls of the breathtaking Musee du Quai, Branly in Paris.

These senior artists have studiously been passing on to the current generation of artists many of the traditional stories and painting techniques of the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) and this show will showcase the works of these senior artists alongside works of new emerging artists such as Roseleen Park, Lorraine Daylight, Roberta Daylight, Gabriel Nodea, Benita Everett, Letoya Evans. Just a few of the group of more than sixty emerging and younger artists currently painting for the art centre.

The early concerns of survival have given way to a thriving and growing Indigenous business and the current show will ensure the continued success of this magical place now entering into its 2nd decade! The establishment of the Warmun art centre was to be a reassertion of control by the Warmun community over the production and distribution of their culture – that goal has been resoundingly achieved.

The works will be on show for the 20th of May until the 27th of June.