Amy Loogatha - Nyinyilki Kamarramarra (694-19)

Artist: Amy Loogatha 

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