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“This story for when my mum, aunty and my grandmother, and a school teacher – that gardiya (white) woman, they bin take (her) up there. And they reckon when she been laying down under one of the tree, she bin get all them kangaroo ticks – he a big one, that kangaroo tick, he make you sore and you gotta pull him out. All this lot (my family) picked them out of her. She was red after that.”
Gelbayn Hill is a large hill in present day Mabel Downs. Shirley’s family would often spend leisure time there, and on this occasion, her mother, aunt, and grand-aunt (also referred to as a grandmother) took a school teacher for a visit. The hill is special to Gija people because it is a special burial site; in the past, when the Gija people who lived there died, their remains were wrapped in paperbark and placed in a nearby cave.
This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.
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