Badu Gili

Jenuarrie was born in Rockhampton as Judith Warrie. She has been a practicing contemporary visual artists and a potter for over 3 decades and is well known throughout Australia for her active involvement and leadership in supporting other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, promoting and developing indigenous art production, presentation of artistic creative merchandise in urban and remote Queensland communities.

Frances Belle Parker was born in 1982 and is a Yaegl woman who works in a variety of media including painting, printmaking and installation. The majority of her work is based around her personal connection to the Yaegl landscape of northern New South Wales. She won the 2000 Blake Prize for Religious Art, the first Aboriginal artist to win this award.

Linocut printer Alick Tipoti was born in 1975 and is a world renowned professional artist from Badu Island in the Torres Strait. His work depicts many meaningful symbols about the Land Sea & Sky of his country through traditional Melanesian patterns. His work is in collection throughout some of the most prestigious Galleries & Museum all over the world.

Minnie was born in Alyawarr land, approximately 200 kilometers north east of Alice Springs, in 1922. Speaking very little English, Minnie’s painting’s came into the Australian art world in the year 2000. Her works reflect the body painting for women’s ceremony – Awely.

Lin was known as a Yorta Yorta painter, sculptor and activist with a distinctive style that combines traditional and contemporary Aboriginal techniques. He was a self-taught artist that held many exhibitions throughout the world. 2017 marks the 20th year anniversary of his untimely passing.

Penny Evans works with ceramics, paper, print and film to engage with the ancient symbols and iconography of her Gomeroi/Gamilaraay ancestors. She has been a finalist in the 2017 and 2016 Telstra NATSIA Awards . Her use of intricately carved lined patterns in ceramics represents the skin markings, estuaries, flood plains and carved trees of her homelands in northern NSW. Her work explores the devastating effect of water mismanagement and agricultural practices. 

Mabel Juli is an internationally renowned painter, a strong Law and Culture woman and important ceremonial singer and dancer from Giga, in the East Kimberly region of Western Australia. She is a finalist in this year’s 35th annual NATSIA Awards in Darwin. Her works use ochre and natural pigments to depict creation stories of the moon and stars, and recently her work has explored human impacts on climate change. Most recognisable is her depiction of Garnkiny doo Wardel (Moon and Star), an important Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) story exploring forbidden love, kinship and the origins of our mortality.

Aunty Pat is a Central Arrernte and Mudburra Elder, painter, lecturer and traditional healer from Undoolya in Alice Springs. She is a member of the Stolen Generation whose recent artistic practice documents her initiation back into her community. Her work depicts women, wild bush foods, ceremonies and the use of symbols. She currently leads walking tours in and around Alice Springs, sharing stories of each location. 

Mervyn Rubuntja  is a Western Arrente man. While living at Hermannsburg as a child, Mervyn watched his uncles Maurice, Oscar and Keith Namatjira painting with watercolour like their father Albert Namatjira had. Mervyn’s father, the late Mr Wenten Rubuntja, was the first Aboriginal member of the Australia Council for the Arts, a senior law man and renowned painter who was an important role model. Mervyn’s work in Badu Gili depicts the seasonal changes  of the McDonnell Ranges and the  colour changes during the setting of the sunset. He paints in the Hermannsburg water colour technique using strong clear colour – the way he sees the landscape in unpolluted light.

As ceremonial leader of the Madarrpa clan of North East Arnhem Land  and a member of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council,  Djamabawa  uses his art to communicate his wider socio-political aims, drawing on the strong foundations of his Yolngu culture to educate, inspire and seek justice for his people. Djambawa uses painting to depict sacred designs, embodying his right to speak as a part of the land, whether above ground or under the sea. Djambawa co-ordinated the 2004 Sea Rights claim in the Federal Court which resulted in the High Court’s determination that Yolngu did indeed own the land between high and low water mark (2008 Blue Mud Bay case). He continues to work with the Northern Land Council and was the winner of Best Bark in the 1996 Telstra Art Award.

Aiona is an emerging artist from Badu Island known for his intricate and striking print work, inspired by the designs of his family markings. His pieces depict the four winds of the Torres Strait Islands, the four hills of Moa Island, and the hunt for dugong and turtles, honouring the rites of passage of young warriors. His work in Badu Gili 2018 highlights the flight of the herons who seek refuge in the wetlands and rivers.