Click to enlargeb. c.1927 / 1935
- Region
- Kimberley
- Community
- Baluwa (Violet Valley)
- Language group
- Gija (Kija, Gidja, Kitja)
Jiyirriny Ngarranggarni Gawarriny - Kangaroo Dreaming At Gawarriny, 2009
natural earth pigments on canvas
45 x 45 cm
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- Provenance
- Warmun Arts Centre, Kununurra, WA, Cat. No. WAC638/09
- Artwork story
- This one from Flat Rock yurlungugu, like past la Jirraginy yurlyurrung [This place is downstream from Flat Rock to the south of Jirraginy]. They got a cut him road this time. We been make a track right round wirliwirlin Jiraga Creek, sit down that side gilirr, we been go all the way right up [We went all along in the hills above Jiraga creek, sat down and then kept going on the west side of the creek, all the way up]. I been mark him for all that lot young man, two young boy. Well, [they] got to put a bulldozer there, right through. That Gawarriny he proper deep, he got a cave. Yurlu berrayinkili right ngurrumang ngelmang. Jiyirriny this one. That hill country jiyirriny, that big mawudany la middle. Two side the ngalim. That’s the Ngarranggarni ngarrgarle, kangaroo dreaming. Three fella, six altogether two sides. They been think about where they got to go. [The women had travelled from the east and were heading south from this place. This is the Kangaroo Dreaming site. That is that large hill kangaroo in the middle. On either side are the women]. They been come up la this place. “Warriwarri we not supposed to be here, this Ngarranggarni jiyirriny.” They didn’t look where they were going. All been ganybel, get a fright [When the women came to this place they cried; ‘Ooh Ah! We’re not supposed to be here, this is the Kangaroo Dreaming place”. They hadn’t been watching where they were going and felt ashamed.]’ Thomas says she has marked the route for her sons and grandsons to grade road through to this place. She went on a trip to mark out where the road should go. In the middle is an important dreaming rock. The rock was a kangaroo in the Dreaming. Three women were walking through this country to go fishing in the deep waterhole at Gawarriny. They weren’t watching where they were going and found themselves at this sacred place which was forbidden to them. They felt ashamed and turned to stone there. The six of them can be seen on either side of the kangaroo stone.