Description
Madeline Purdie
Ochre on Canvas
90 x 90 cm
Year: 2023
WAC269/23
Kilkayi Barramundi Dreaming
Three women trying to trap Dayiwul the great barramundi with spinifex nets. This is a traditional method of fishing where by nyiyirriny (river spinifex) is rolled and placed in the water forming a kind of net. Dayiwul was too clever for the women and jumped over the barrier they had laid. She pushed her body through the rock of what is now called Pitt Range. The women gave up and walked to a place called Gawinyji (Cattle Creek) where they turned into rocks.
The scales of Dayiwul embedded in the rock, became the diamonds that are extracted from the Argyle Diamond Mine.
