My name's Rod Garlett. I'm a Noongar artist now living in Broome.
Northam is my hometown where I've been born and bred. It was known by our old people -
my grandfather Joobaitch - as Nardjook, meaning 'A Place of the Bubbling Springs'.
We lived there all our lives, and I've been taught by my old people that there's two
rivers that flow there; so, the river that the white fellas see, and then there's a
river that runs underneath where the Snake travels.
So, we use the craft glue so
I get a brush and I lay out all the glue and then I sprinkle the sand as I'm
going, until we've covered the whole canvas. This is - we call it river sand,
but it's actually the top soil that's coming in off the farmlands, because all the
natural barriers like the trees and the bush shrubs and everything, has been taken
from the land then there's nothing holding the topsoil back on country, and
it's just choking the river system. We've had a government program up around our
area where they're dredging this silt out of the river pools and they were
piling it up at Katrine Pool there, and I said, what can I use it for? Geez, I
might just chuck it on some canvas and see it if I can paint with it. And that's how my
art evolved as the 'River Sand artist' and it's how people kind of recognize
that it's my work.
We ask permission for that, and we've always done it - through
hunting, through gathering, to even collecting bush medicines, that we would
always ask of our ancestors if it'd be right for us to come in and take this,
and we tell them what we want to do with it. We would ask (our) old people to give us that
blessing, and I've used that same approach to ask permission to take the river sand
from the waterhole to use in my art to tell our family stories. We get a little
cool wind that blows over us as a sign of acceptance, but if you don't get it, then you don't
take it, or if you hear a branch fall from a tree or something that makes
you alert, then you say no, we have to leave now, or, it's time to go, yeah.
Well, we've divided up in six spaces here, and that just solely represents our Noongar
Native Title Claim, and it represents the six claimant groups for our 'boodja', for
our country in the Southwest.
Here, we've outlined this banksia - the banksia
was used in ceremony as part of the mens' headdress as well, but it was also
used for carrying fire, and the seeds were collected and used for making bread.
This a balga bush - he had about a hundred and one uses, this plant, for our people.
It's one of the most versatile plants in our plant kingdom, and when
we have a big ceremony, we burn one of these to give cleansing to all of our
people and our communities. The Aboriginal flag that I've used to represent our
people here; the black is a representation of our people; the red is
from the massacres of the blood that was shed upon our land when the Europeans
came to our country; and the yellow represents a better future or a new day - a
brighter day - for our people. The Christmas tree - 'moodjar' is our Noongar name -
the most sacred of our plants. It was a tree where our family, when they passed
on, their spirits would rest there first at that tree, and they'd rest there
before they went on to a place that the old people called 'Karrinyup' which is
Aboriginal heaven, Beyond the Sea, and we're not allowed to sit in the shade of
that tree and we're not allowed to break any of the branches from that tree.
It's very sacred.
So, I use the symbol of the water and the ripples
in my paintings to represent the healing places - the healing pools- along our river,
where we go to wash ourselves and clean our spirit - make us all strong, you know?
These ones up here along the Avon River - 'Goongoola' we call it - and
this one is Burlong, Katrine, Red Banks, that this is a deep pool near Toodyay and
that's Walyunga at the end there. So, all sacred pools for our people, and our
mother's family run along that river.
But the water is giver of life, and that's why I use it in my symbols today,
that it represents that very thing about healing ourselves
at the waterholes, and our connection to the Rainbow Serpent,
because our family, we Snake People, yeah.
So, this one here, the quandong fruit,
is from my father's country which is the Ballardong people, and they always collect
this in the season to make their bush jams.
So my totem is the emu; in Noongar we call it "waitj'. So, the emu hand over my hand,
this is my special gift or my connection to the water - it's our healing - so,
'waitj' is my totem, and I can't eat that one. I must always protect this one and
that's part of a system that's been in place within our culture right across Australia,
and it's why our animals have still survived, because of that very system.
So this is a meeting place - usually when
we have four sitting, then it speaks of Woman's Business. So, Men's Business and
Women's Business was always separate, and still is today.
'Warlitj' is the eagle and this symbol here of the Southern Cross reminds us that he
was the one that was responsible for creating our laws of our Noongar land and sea and for it's people.
This corner section here represents 'Noongar boodja' - our land -
Aboriginal land. The footprints are of our people walking across our country,
hunting and gathering, looking after country.
And that one there's the black cockatoo -
'manatj' - and he reminds us of our warriors and he carries these
special red feathers that represent our Noongar country, or a lot of people
distinguish those feathers as a part of us. For me, they really do remind
us of our strong warriors that walked our country, you know?
This figure here, the chest markings is of my great-great-grandfather Joobaitch -
he's a senior law man for Whadjuk country here. He was a master of ceremony
and used to sing the songs for this country and these are his traditional markings.
But it also represents myself, as a Noongar man for this country, and that's
why I've done the face with the lines coming straight down, which means 'self'.
Ceremony in our country made us strong. Ceremony also implemented and kept our
law for this country strong - the law of the land and all its people and its
culture. Ceremony was also about giving thanks and gratitude to the Great
Spirits for providing us with a beautiful country and plenty full of
food. That's why our people have always looked after the country, because we know
that the country would look after us in return, and that's always been a part of
our upbringing as Aboriginal people, the first carers of this land.
you
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