Description
CHARLENE CARRINGTON
120 x 120 cm / Natural ochre and pigment on canvas
Year: 2016
WAC141/16
Red Butte, Texas Country
Charlene Carrington’s father, Churchill Cann, passed away in early 2016. In the months that followed his passing Charlene began to paint Red Butte, the subject of many of her fathers paintings.
Red Butte is a hill in Ngarrgooroon Country. Churchill mustered cattle across this country for many years under conditions akin to indentured labour.
Churchill shared the following story about Red Butte;
Goodbarriya, Churchill’s grandmother, took off from Ngarrgooroon Country when it was taken by white pastoralists and turned into Texas Downs Cattle station. Goodbarriya was looking for sweet sugarbag (bush honey) one day when horns started growing from her head. Churchill said: ‘She felt shame and didn’t want to go back home.’ So she stayed in a cave at Red Butte for the rest of her days. Here she became ‘clever’, and the station managers never found her.
*”Clever” is a term used by Kriol speakers to indicate that a person has special powers these might described as ‘healing’ or ‘magic’
