MABEL WIRINGGOON JULI - UNTITLED

ARTIST STATEMENT 2004: 'I started painting when the old girl [Queenie McKenzie] was here - she was the one who taught me to paint. She told me, 'You try that painting’, and I started to paint. I was doing that Garnkiny [Moon Dreaming]; that’s the painting I started with - because my mother and father told me that Ngarranggarni [Dreamtime] story. I was reminded of all those stories from my mum and dad - like Glingennayn Hill and the Old Woman Singing Out for Her Dog. Those stories come from my country [Springvale]. 'They used to take me out bush when I was a litlle girl - good size - and they told me all about those Dreamme stories. And I always remember those stories. I got ‘em in my brain.'
ARTIST STATEMENT, 2007: 'I’m feeling pretty good. I like going to exhibitions, going to Sydney, feels good. 'I’m always busy. I finish the work, the painting, and go home. Go to [Warmun Community] council meetings, go to court [as an elder]. I got to make money to get tucker for my grandchildren. I still think about Aunty [Queenie McKenzie, who taught her to paint]. When I do painting. She tell me about stories.'
ARTIST STATEMENT, 2018: "Ohh, too many years I've been working. When I was young, I was working around the school and my auntie Queenie [Mckenzie] asked me to do painting...I'm the first one to do painting. Other people, they all bin in the station, working you know... I'm getti?ng old now. That's what I do - painting - and my auntie, she learned me for painting. I've never do the [new] Ngarrganggarni (Dreaming) yet, only the old one. [The new one] might be next year... yeah."