​2019 - 2022

​Bukmak scroll

                                                                    Mussel hunting with Rosemary. Galiwin'ku/Elcho Island. 2019. Photograph courtesy of Omair Raza.

                                      Mussel hunting with Rosemary. Watercolour, oil, found material, stamps, khadi silk, embroidered panels on paper. Detail. 1000cmx20cm (entire). 2019-2022.                                                                                                                              

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​Bukmak means "altogether", or "in the company of" in Yolgnu Matha, the language spoken by Yolgnu people of Gali'winku - Elcho Island. I lived in Gali'winku for six months and Bukmak scroll diarises time there.

I was adopted by Rosemary Gunjarranbuy Gurrawurra Galikali. Rosemary named me Dhorna, for the sacred digging stick that belonged to the two spirit women who descended from the Pleides, and who as she told me, created the features of Galiwin'ku as they stopped to rest. 

It meant a lot to me to be adopted by Rosemary, and to be named after an important and useful instrument, a sense I carried with me.

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