Description
I was born on and grew up on Jirrbal country. I grew up in Wondecla near Herberton in North Queensland. The Jirrbal are a rainforest Aboriginal tribe. The yellow and red ochres on the left and right represent sunrise and sunset. I represented the green of the rainforest, the blue of Wondecla Creek and the reddish-brown soil abstractly. I washed in the creek, swam in the creek, and slept out under the open heaven with my family. We ate around the campfire sitting on the ground or on old stumps and enjoyed ourselves. I loved the sounds of parrots and kookaburras with the kookaburra being my time clock. We made our own walkabout tracks with sticks and branches, walking without shoes. It is a life I remember fondly and where a lot of my painting inspiration comes from.170