Garn'Giny Not Granite : Mabel Juli, Marlene Juli, Atlanta Mercy Umbulgurri

Moon Dreaming Not Granite Mining 

This exhibition features works by one of Australia's most senior and revered artists, the 89-year-old East Kimberley painter Mabel Juli with those of her daughter, 43-year-old Marlene Juli and 24-year-old granddaughter Atlanta Mercy Umbulgurri. In early 2021, the three artists created a very special body of 31 paintings that portray in evocative imagery and extensive texts, three of their Country's most important Dreaming stories as well as others of significance.  The genesis for the exhibition was the damage that had been done in 2019 and 2020 to the artists' Country and their important Dreaming sites by invasive granite mining exploration on their lands at Springvale Station, between Halls Creek and Warmun in the East Kimberley. This damage sparked a groundswell of support for the artists and the other traditional owners who strongly objected to it. The Kimberley Land Council is representing the traditional owners and a nationwide online campaign: garnkinynotgranite was established.  The 31 works in this exhibition amply demonstrated the importance of Aboriginal heritage sites and what is lost if they are destroyed.   Mabel Juli's spare and lyrical Garn'giny Ngarranggarni (Moon Dreaming) paintings epitomise the 'big story' these sites represent - taking us to the heart of human experience of love, mortality, kinship and obligation. Mrs Juli's stellar 25-year career includes representation in more than 100 group exhibitions in Australia's leading public and private galleries and a number of solo shows. An 8 times finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and winner of Melbourne University's Kate Challis RAKA Award, her work is in the collections of many Australian public galleries and significant international private collections. 

Marlene Juli paints Goorlabal the Rainbow Serpent who travelled to Springvale Station to find water. Today the Serpent's gargantuan body lies as stone stretching across a large expanse of Country. Recently, the black granite that comprised sections of her tail have been extracted, leaving the surrounding bedrock as broken shards.  

Talented 24-year-old Atlanta Mercy Umbulgurri has inherited the rights to paint her grandmother's famous dreaming story of the moon and the equally epic Old Woman Singing Out for her Dog - that relates the battles of the ancestral dingo and kangaroo.

In her interpretation of these stories with a new and fresh vision, Atlanta Umbulgurri's striking black and whites and soft yellow and pink works are powerful reminders of the continuity offered by art to maintain, celebrate and honour these ancient stories and the vital importance of preserving the lands on which they are held. They also introduce this young artist - exhibiting here for the first time - as a major new talent for this famous school of East  Kimberley ochre painting. 

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