Amy Loogatha Rayarriwarrtharrbayingat - Nyinyilki Kamarramarra (694-19)
Artist: Amy Loogatha Rayarriwarrtharrbayingat
Title: Nyinyilki Kamarramarra
Cat No: 694-19
Size: 51 x 40.5 cm
Acrylic on Canvas
Story:
"Nyinyilki is a freshwater spring south-east of Bennck Island. This is now the mainbase. There is plenty of special rocks called Kamarramarra there which the old people use to sharpen their spears and tools."
Bio:
Artist: Amy Loogatha
Born: 1942
Language: Kayardild
"I remember getting a message that Aunty Sally Gabori was coming over to Bentinck to show us something. She brought one of her paintings and gave it to Ethel. It was beautiful. So we decided that we would follow Sally and paint too. I got a shock when I went to the Art Centre and saw all my sisters and Aunties painting. Now I paint with them."
"I was born behind Nyinyilki on Bentinck Island. I remember when I was small and planes used to fly overhead we used to run and hide in the mangroves. It was fun playing and growing up on Bentinck as small girls but that soon changed when they came and took us away and dumped us on Mornington Island on 1946. "Life was very hard in the dormitory. We were fed flour with weavels in it, we had to bathe in saltwater and our clothes were made out of rough material like the canvas we now paint on. I went out to the mainland to work for a few years on stations before coming back to Mornington and having children. "When our landrights came it was great to be free of Mornington Island and return to our home. I took my grandchildren with me to show them their traditional country and to live on our homeland once again."
Exhibitions:
Group Exhibitions 2017 CIAF
2017 CIAF Indigenous Fashion Performance
2016 Land of All - Dulka Wangiid
2016 CIAF 2015 My Island Home
2015 CIAF 2015 Currents: Trends & Movements in Queensland Indigenous ArtCentres Exhibition
2015 International Women's Day Exhibition
2014 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
2013 Kinship - A Celebration of Fine Arts from Far North Queensland Indigenous Art Centre
2012 Artists from BI & MI Qld
2011 Korea International Art Fair
2011 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
2009 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
2007 Bentinck Island Artists featuring Netta Loogatha
2007 Above and Beyond 2007 Painters of Bentinck Island
2007 Painting Up Country: New Art Form The Mornington and Bentinck Islands
2006 Sally Gabori & Introducing the Bentinck Island Art Gang
2006 Big Ones Little Ones 2006 Bentinck Island Project