Little waterholes - my country, Jakayu Biljabu
Acrylic on canvas, 50cm x 70cm
Provenance: Tunbridge Gallery, Margaret River.
Senior Martumili artist, Jakayu Biljabu, is known for her bold painterly style. Her youth was spent travelling through the Manyjilyjarra desert region and the sandhills, playpens and salt lakes of this area are reflected in her works. For Biljabu, her painting passes cultural knowledge down to the next generation of Martu. This knowledge is particularly significant as her family waited longer than most before leaving their traditional life. In 1982, during the ‘return to County’ movement, she moved to with her family to Punmu community, where she lives now (1).
Little waterholes reflects the the travelling of the Minyi Puru (Seven Sisters) in the Dreaming, much like the travelling of Biljabu and her family as they gathered seeds and grass for baskets. The circles within the painting have layers of meaning - they work as a map to the special areas where grasses can be found, they symbolise waterholes and camps, and metaphorically, of the time spent travelling across the land. All the different times and colours as are the baskets, the idea that the weaving is like the times spent travelling, place to place as the mythical sisters did a long time ago (2).