ReDot Fine Art Gallery

in collaboration with Mornington Island Arts & Crafts Centre presents:

My Country Paula PAUL - Recent Works

Online Exhibition

c o n t e m p o r a r y f i n e a b o r i g i n a l a r t

“Paula has been incredibly strong in her attachment to country for as long as I’ve known her, and she is keen to get the outstation going and her children connected up to their country in any way she can. The real things that matter to her are her country and her family. Her art comes out of that.” - Nicholas Evans, 2009

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Paula PAUL

Part of the South Wellesley group of islands in the southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Bentinck Island is relatively small: just 20 kilometres across and only 12 kilometres from top to bottom. As a result it is a place that the local Kaiadilt people know intimately. Isolated from other peoples because of the island’s remoteness, their traditional lifestyle is focused around the sea. An extensive network of fish traps (constructed using stone walls) circle the island: they fill up during high tides, trapping fish as the water recedes and enabling the Kaiadilt people to simply spear or net the fish from the sandbanks.

Like other artists from Bentinck Island, Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul came late to art and art making. She was born in 1937 and lived a completely traditional island life with her “sisters” – Sally Gabori, the late Dawn Naranatjil and May Moodoonuthi (who were all born in the 1920s and 30s), and Netta Loogatha, Amy Loogatha and Ethel Thomas (all born between 1942 and 1946). These women had little contact with non-Kaiadilt people and none at all with European settlers until their forced removal to Mornington Island (also part of the Wellesley Islands) in 1948 as a result of a severe drought during the 1940s and a cyclone in 1948.

On Mornington Island they lived a largely separate life within the local Lardil and Yangkaal communities for over 40 years before those able to live independently negotiated their return to Bentinck during the early 1990s. The residents of Bentinck Island, including Paula Paul, now return to Mornington Island every year to escape the severe floods of Bentinck’s wet season.

The art centre at Mornington Island has been producing arts and crafts since the 1960s, but its move into contemporary painting was relatively recent. Precipitated by a sharp decline in the interest in bark paintings and traditional crafts, the shift was initiated by art centre Manager Brett Evans, who was inspired by the success of groups such as the Lockhart River Art Gang on the other side of the Gulf. Evans organised a series of workshops at Mornington in 2005, and from the beginning he ensured that only highly reputable commercial galleries were chosen to exhibit the work.

That first workshop was dominated by the work of senior Lardil men, who had a strong “paint-up” (body painting) tradition for dance. They were also well-known as a result of the international tours of the Mornington Island Dancers that began in 1964. However, the involvement of Sally Gabori in the second workshop marked the emergence of Kaiadilt women from Bentinck Island as a major artistic force. Although Gabori, Paula Paul and the other Kaiadilt women were lifelong practitioners of traditional crafts – they rolled bark into string, built fish traps from stone, made string bags from grass and carved bowls from wood – they had no real experience of mark making. Yet as soon as Gabori began experimenting with paint, her potential was immediately evident. Every single painting in her first exhibition, at Brisbane’s Woolloongabba Art Gallery in December 2005, was sold.

When other women moved to Mornington from Bentinck for the following wet season, Gabori encouraged them to paint too. Brett Evans recalls: “The women walked in with such confidence and desire to paint. They had a confidence that Sally lacked when she first started. With no hesitation their first canvases were each painted in their own way.” Although the work of each artist was highly individual, the dominant element in the paintings of each of these women was their memory of country and its representation in vibrant colours.

Paula Paul’s earliest paintings depicted her favourite motifs of the time: shells, rocks and oyster reefs represented as roundels of contrasting colour on darkly painted backgrounds (often blues or deep purples). She said of these works: “Along the beach of my country are big white rocks. I paint them and I paint the little white shells that are up on the beach. We call them dinghy shells.”

Paul’s work is continually evolving. Her Burrkunda (scar) paintings are constructed differently to the works that feature shells – the backgrounds are white and the marks are made using a single colour. They record the Kaiadilt tradition of marking the body: the ritualised scarring undertaken by men, and the mourning behaviour of women that involves making multiple cuts on their scalps as expressions of grief. Thick stripes of paint are used to build up a surface of markings producing sombre yet highly significant works. They are dramatic in their simplicity and beauty, and stand alone in her oeuvre.

The strong relationship between Paula Paul’s paintings and body markings was noted by anthropologist Dr Paul Memmott, who, in 1982, mapped the Kaiadilt geography of Sweers Island with Paul’s late husband, Arthur Paul.

Even though Paul paints on Mornington Island during the wet season, the work is informed by her extensive and detailed memories of Bentinck Island. She says: “I think about what they [the fish traps and reefs] look like on my country, I think about the last time I saw them and think I am there.”

Recent canvases are significantly more complex and sophisticated than earlier works, and feature a much broader palette as well as an increased confidence in the mark making. “Paula has always wanted, since she started to paint, to be the best painter she could be, so she works hard and puts all her efforts into it,” says Brett Evans. “I have noticed in the last 12 months how she has developed from somewhat simple designs or shapes (such as circles and dots for oysters and shells) to the now multi-coloured fish traps and flat reefs. She is filling up her canvases in a very confident manner and producing some amazing work.”

Paula Paul’s work has been exhibited widely throughout Australia, most notably in commercial shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin and Cairns. She was also part of the exhibition ‘Together’ at the Sharjah Museum for Contemporary Arab Art in the United Arab Emirates in 2008, and her journey is recorded in the book The

“I think about what they [the fish traps and reefs] look like on my country, I think about the last time I saw them and think I am there.” - Paula PAUL

6 7Heart of Everything: the art and artists of Mornington and Bentinck Islands, published in 2008. She also held her first solo exhibition was in Melbourne in the same year. These are significant achievements for an artist in their 70s who has been painting for only a few years.

Like many older Indigenous artists, painting for Paul is a way of describing iconography. Her stories originate in the daily lives of Bentinck Island people, both from her memory as a very young person and her experiences today. But there is also a fragility about the situation, as the tiny Kaiadilt community continues to shrink. The circumstances of their forced removal have resulted in younger generations being unable to speak their Kayardild language.

Linguist Nicholas Evans, a Kayardild speaker who is close to the community, says: “Paula has been incredibly strong in her attachment to country for as long as I’ve known her, and she is keen to get the outstation going and her children connected up to their country in any way she can. The real things that matter to her are her country and her family. Her art comes out of that.”

A significant achievement for Paul was her involvement in a major collaborative work, Dulka Warngiid (Land of All), with other Bentinck Island painters – Sally Gabori, Netta Loogatha, May Moodoonuthi, Dawn Naranatjil, Amy Loogatha and Ethel Thomas. Completed in 2007, the painting (over six metres wide and two metres high) was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and subsequently woven into a tapestry by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in 2008 for the Melbourne Recital Centre.

The artists visited the centre in early 2009 for the installation of the tapestry in the level one foyer of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. During this celebration Beverly Knight recalls: “The artists were crying, almost uncontrollably, about seeing their work in such a beautiful building and before a full house.”

The geographical and cultural distances encompassed by this event parallel the creative shifts and life changes experienced by artists such as Paula Paul. Her remarkable journey is perfectly summed up in the Flat Reef paintings from her 2008-09 period. They are images of her beloved country – filled with colour and movement, and brimming with life.

Taken from: Australian Aboriginal Art, June 2009 Text by Louise Martin-Chew Images of Paula PAUL’s beloved

country, Bentinck Island.

8 9Paula Paul was born on the south side of Bentinck Island, off the coast of Queensland, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. As a child she enjoyed spending time with her sisters, making muddy dolls and playing games. When the whole population of her island had to be evacuated to nearby Mornington Island, Paula and other girls were put under the care of Missionaries. She later worked in the mainland on a sheep station but went back to Mornington Island, where she got married and had six children. Paula has been an important figure in her people Land Rights’ movement and has moved back to Bentinck Island when rights were granted. Paula started to learn painting from her aunty Sally Gabori around 2005 and her works have since gained a lot of admirers. Demand for her works has increased steeply in the last year or so. She was the cover of the second issue of the Australian Aboriginal Art Magazine which just helped to attract more attention. Her works depict the reefs, oyster, rocks and fishing traps of Bentinck’s beaches and have a very contemporary fell.

Paula PAUL

Language : Kayardild Country : Bentinck Island Born : June 30,1937 Solo Exhibitions

Kunthurlt (Flat Reef) Paula Paul - Alcaston GalleryKuruwarriyingathi bijarrb - Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Sally Gabori & introducing The Bentinck Island Art Gang - Grantpirrie Gallery

Group Exhibitions

2 Great Old Women - Sally Gabori & Paula Paul - Alcaston GalleryBentinck Is Artworks at the Cairns Indigenous Art fair 2010Korean International art Fair - Alcaston GalleryNgalla marraaju wuuju dulka kilwanmauthu - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore Lardil, Kaiadilt, Yangkaal - Wooloongabba Art Gallery “Painting Up Country” - Kick Arts Painters of Bentinck Island - Raft Art Space Mornington Island - Short Street Gallery Bentinck Is Artists featuring Netta Loogatha - Alcaston GalleryBentinck Island Project - Wooloongabba Art Gallery

Awards/Competitions

W.A. Indigenous Art Award-Gallery of Western Australia-Perth

Publications

The Heart of Everything - book published McCulloch&McCullochBentinck Island Project Catalogue

Collections

“Dulka Warngiid” - Collection National Gallery of Victoria Chartwell Collection The Lagerberg-Swift Collection The Marshall Collection

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20122010

20092007

2006

2011

20082006

11JawarldaSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 151cm6397-L-PP-1210

Dreamtime

Jawarlda are reef oysters and big ones grow on the flat reefs around Bentinck Island.

Paula PAUL

1312 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm6100-L-PP-0810

Dreamtime

I like to paint all the colours that you see on the flat reefs at low tide. In amongst the rocks are bright coloured plants and animals.

Paula PAUL

14 15BurrkundaSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm3704-L-PP-1008

Dreamtime

Burrkunda are scars us Bentinck ladies have on our bodies. When someone close to us dies we grab a sharp rock or piece of shell and cut ourselves so that we bleed in sorrow for our loss. A scar forms which is called Burrkunda.

Paula PAUL

16 17BurrkundaSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen91cm x 121cm4329-L-PP-0509

Dreamtime

Burrkunda are scars that us Bentinck ladies have on our bodies.

Paula PAUL

19Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm6295-L-PP-1110

Dreamtime

This is another of the flat reefs that are all around Bentinck Island and can be walked on at low tide.

Paula PAUL

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21Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm6319-L-PP-1110

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef near where I was born on Bentinck Island. This is where the really big rock oysters are found.

Paula PAUL

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22 23NaljirndirriSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm5634-L-PP-0310

Dreamtime

This is a special place on Bentinck island. It is a story place about the bush turkey. It is said to be his nest in the dreamtime. It is surrounded by oyster rocks and oysters.

Paula PAUL

2524 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen121cm x 91cm6365-L-PP-1110

Dreamtime

I like to paint the flat reefs that we have around Bentinck Island. I like the colours and how in some places at low tide you still have water in some places and in others you have the rock exposed.

Paula PAUL

2726 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 76cm6294-L-PP-1110

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef at Bentinck Island. At low tide we walk out and hunt and explore on them.

Paula PAUL

2928 KamarraSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 76cm6464-L-PP-0111

Dreamtime

Kamarra is our word for stone. The Flat reefs that I like to paint are made up of them as are our fishtraps.

Paula PAUL

3130 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 76cm5666-L-PP-0310

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef at Dadagunn on Bentinck island. At low tide we walk out and hunt for food there.

Paula PAUL

3332 Flat ReefSynthetic polymer paint on linen101cm x 76cm5918-L-PP-0610

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef on my country on Bentinck Island. I like to paint all the colours that you see.

Paula PAUL

3534 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 76cm5673-L-PP-0310

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef off my country on Bentinck island. At low tide you can walk out onto it and look for crabs, oysters and collect shells.

Paula PAUL

3736 Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen101cm x 76cm6225-L-PP-1010

Dreamtime

We have lots of flat reefs around Bentinck Island. I like to hunt and expore them. There are big rock oysters and crabs to eat and I also collect shells.

Paula PAUL

3938 Kuruwarriyingathi (Black snake)Synthetic Polymer Paint on Linen91cm x 61cm6454-L-PP-0111

Dreamtime

These are big rock oysters that grow near where I was born on Bentinck Island.

Paula PAUL

40 41Flat ReefSynthetic Polymer Paint on Linen91cm x 61cm5639-L-PP-0310

Dreamtime

This is a flat reef at Dadagunn on Bentinck Island. There are lots of big oysters here.

Paula PAUL

42 43Pippy & Weethee shellsSynthetic polymer paint on linen91cm x 61cm5339-L-PP-0110

Dreamtime

These are shells that we find in the sand on the beach. They are great to eat.

Paula PAUL

44 45OystersEtching - Edition of 25100cm x 50cm4760-16/25-PP-0909

Dreamtime

I like to eat the big oysters that grow on my country on Bentinck Island.

Paula PAUL

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The Stonewall Fishtraps on Bentinck Island Beaches are an aesthetic inspiration to Paula PAUL.

Bentinck Island“I saw my aunty painting and I really liked her paintings so I thought I would try and be a good painter too. I like doing paintings of my country and especially oysters which I like to eat.” - Paula PAUL

Tiny Bentinck Island, home of the Kaiadilt people, is situated in the south-east corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Supposedly “first” discovered by Jan Carstensz, Commander of the ship Pera in 1623, it is also in the first area of the Gulf that was surveyed in detail by the explorer Matthew Flinders in 1802. Many of the hunting implements and customs described by Flinders are still in use today including rafts, shell water vessels, fish nets and traps.

After the brief encounter with Flinders, the Kaiadilt chose to remain self-contained and isolated from European people for the next 145 years.

In 1914 Presbyterian Missionaries settled Gununa on nearby Mornington Island by bringing the Lardil and Yangkaal language groups together from outlying islands. There had been intermittent documented contact with the Kaiadilt of Bentinck Island from 1901 including systematic efforts by the missionaries from 1925, but in the main, they remained isolated and continued their traditional lifestyle.

In 1946 and 1947, severe drought affected the communities in the Gulf area, and in 1948 Bentinck Island was engulfed by great tidal waves or high tides. This culminated in a deterioration of the Kaiadilt homelands, resulting in the transportation of the entire island population to the mission on Mornington Island.

In the 1980s the Kaiadilt people on Mornington began to re-establish themselves on their ancestral lands on Bentinck Island; however, the Mornington Island community of Gununa is still the major resource centre for these people today.

Aerial view of Bentinck Island Coast.

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The ladies of Bentinck Island (Paula PAUL, second from the left).

The Bentinck Island Beaches that are represented in Paula PAUL’S work.

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