Yerrdagarri: Messages from Peppi
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“In the wildness of the Peppimenarti floodplain we spend the day with artists and elders Regina Wilson, Kathleen Korda, Margaret Kundu and student Joy, gathering traditional food plants. What a wonderful day it was”.
Duration
1.27
Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
Our warm thanks to Regina and Henry and family and to the beautiful community of Peppimenarti and DURRMU ARTS.
NOTE: MARKING THE INFINITE Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia: Creative cowboy films provided documentaries from their archives for this beautiful exhibition that toured major institutions in the US and Canada.
Water lilies are many things, they are beautiful, they are numerous, around 70 species, water lilies live in the tropics and in temperate zones. Aquatic herbs, water lilies have been an important food source for Indigenous people since ancient time.
Foods are of course seasonal, from April to December the tubers are pulled from the mud, they are separated from other plant material and cooked in the fire. From April to September the seed head is harvested, it can be eaten raw or cooked or ground and the ‘flour’ is used to make damper. We also peel the stems from the plants we collect and eat them raw, they are delicious. The Flowers can also be eaten. Not much is wasted.
Why Regina’s efforts to maintain these important traditions and to teach the young people about ‘hunting’ for water lilies and other food plants is described below.
Far, far to the east of where we are now and in Arnhem Land, artist and elder Ms Wirrpanda reminds us of just how important traditional foods are for the health and wellbeing of her Indigenous family.
“This is the food we ate when I was young. Back then everywhere we looked there were old people. Strong and healthy – they lived with us for a long time. Nowadays people die when they are only young. There are very few people as old as I am. Children are given rubbish food to eat. It is killing us”.
Even further to the east again and on Cape York, artist Napolean Oui, a Djabugay man, reminds us of another important story.
“Respect, just take what you need and don’t just take a big mob of it”.
Foods are of course seasonal, from April to December the tubers are pulled from the mud, they are separated from other plant material and cooked in the fire. From April to September the seed head is harvested, it can be eaten raw or cooked or ground and the ‘flour’ is used to make damper. We also peel the stems from the plants we collect and eat them raw, they are delicious. The Flowers can also be eaten. Not much is wasted.
Why Regina’s efforts to maintain these important traditions and to teach the young people about ‘hunting’ for water lilies and other food plants is described below.
Far, far to the east of where we are now and in Arnhem Land, artist and elder Ms Wirrpanda reminds us of just how important traditional foods are for the health and wellbeing of her Indigenous family.
“This is the food we ate when I was young. Back then everywhere we looked there were old people. Strong and healthy – they lived with us for a long time. Nowadays people die when they are only young. There are very few people as old as I am. Children are given rubbish food to eat. It is killing us”.
Even further to the east again and on Cape York, artist Napolean Oui, a Djabugay man, reminds us of another important story.
“Respect, just take what you need and don’t just take a big mob of it”.
About Regina Pilawuk Wilson
In 2003 Regina was awarded the General Painting prize of the Telstra National Indigenous and Torres-Strait Islander Award in 2003 for her fishnet painting.
Among many institutions Regina’s work is in the collections of the British Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery.
“Wilson’s work, like that of many other contemporary Aboriginal artists, is inherently tied to questions of sovereignty, land rights, identity”. Henry Skerritt, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Charlottesville
In May 2018, Regina visited the Phillips Collection in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighbourhood to paint two murals in the museum's courtyard. These were the first murals painted by an Aboriginal Australian woman in the US.
The Phillips Collection includes works by Renoir and Rothko, Bonnard and O'Keeffe, van Gogh and Diebenkorn among many.
The Phillips / Wilson murals are Nangi / Yerrdagarri (Traveling Message Stick) and Fi (String Game). Message sticks were used in Australia until at least the 1950s depending on the region, to tell people about ceremonies and funerals and other events of significance. The message sticks, carried by men, who walked very long distances, in doing so, were often away for many months before returning home after their message had been delivered.
The string game Fi was played by the people in the Daly River / Peppimenarti region in the north west of the Northern Territory.
The Phillips also showed the travelling exhibition Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, the exhibition ran in Washington from June 2 - September 9, 2018. The works of nine artists in the exhibition were from the collection of Dennis and Debra Scholl. The artists were Nonggirrnga Marawili, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Yukultji Napangati, Angelina Pwerle, Carlene West, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Lena Yarinkura, Gulumbu Yunupingu, and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Many of the artists will be familiar to you through the pages of this website.
“The works are steeped in ancient cultural traditions, specific to each artist, and yet speak to universal contemporary themes, revealing the continued relevance of Indigenous knowledge in the 21st century".
About Regina Pilawuk Wilson
In 2003 Regina was awarded the General Painting prize of the Telstra National Indigenous and Torres-Strait Islander Award in 2003 for her fishnet painting.
Among many institutions Regina’s work is in the collections of the British Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery.
“Wilson’s work, like that of many other contemporary Aboriginal artists, is inherently tied to questions of sovereignty, land rights, identity”. Henry Skerritt, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Charlottesville
In May 2018, Regina visited the Phillips Collection in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighbourhood to paint two murals in the museum's courtyard. These were the first murals painted by an Aboriginal Australian woman in the US.
The Phillips Collection includes works by Renoir and Rothko, Bonnard and O'Keeffe, van Gogh and Diebenkorn among many.
The Phillips / Wilson murals are Nangi / Yerrdagarri (Traveling Message Stick) and Fi (String Game). Message sticks were used in Australia until at least the 1950s depending on the region, to tell people about ceremonies and funerals and other events of significance. The message sticks, carried by men, who walked very long distances, in doing so, were often away for many months before returning home after their message had been delivered.
The string game Fi was played by the people in the Daly River / Peppimenarti region in the north west of the Northern Territory.
The Phillips also showed the travelling exhibition Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, the exhibition ran in Washington from June 2 - September 9, 2018. The works of nine artists in the exhibition were from the collection of Dennis and Debra Scholl. The artists were Nonggirrnga Marawili, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Yukultji Napangati, Angelina Pwerle, Carlene West, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Lena Yarinkura, Gulumbu Yunupingu, and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Many of the artists will be familiar to you through the pages of this website.
“The works are steeped in ancient cultural traditions, specific to each artist, and yet speak to universal contemporary themes, revealing the continued relevance of Indigenous knowledge in the 21st century".
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Our warm thanks to Regina and Henry and family and to the beautiful community of Peppimenarti and DURRMU ARTS.
NOTE: MARKING THE INFINITE Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia: Creative cowboy films provided documentaries from their archives for this beautiful exhibition that toured major institutions in the US and Canada.