Betty Bundamurra Ngarinyin, Worrora, Wunamba, b. 1960
17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in
Betty Bundamurra is a leading artist from Kalumburu in the Kimberley. She was born in the bush while her parents were on a walkabout. At the age of three, after the death of her mother, Betty came to Kalumburu Mission Convent where she was looked afer by Ignatia Ganwalla and the nuns. She worked in the mission baking bread and at the Kalumburu school as a teaching aid. Betty as five children and eleven grand children, and lives happily with her family in Kalumburu. She has held the position as an arts worker at Kira Kiro Art Centre, Kalumburu, since 2012 and was selected for the Art Gallery of W estern Australia's Desert River Sea Visual Arts Leadership program. She says this painting is of the Lalai dreamtime where two young warriors walked a long distance and felt hungry. They came a long way and it was the middle of the night when they saw a man who was cooking food. The man gave them food to eat, but they got greedy and didn't save any food for the next day. The man was a Parn Parn man, this name is an Aboriginal word for witch doctor. He put a spell to create a huge whirlwind which took them to the moon. It is a lesson to Aboriginal people when hunting food; you must save some for the next day.