Weaver Jack

Yulparija Language Group

"Lungurang"

70 x 90cms

Acrylic on linen

Ref No: BID24113

Weaver Jack primarily paints her traditional country south of Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route. When she first started to paint, the outlines of the country were laid bare on the canvas. Like a skeleton of the country, slowly she reclaimed this country dotting over it, loosely at first. She said these where her people walking all around that country, collecting mayi (bush food) and hunting for kuwi (meat). Slowly, the country merged with the people. It was then she started putting herself in the paintings,and through her painting, Weaver managed to reclaim her country. Each turn of her brush captures the intimacy in which she knows her subject. It is an intimacy that is almost impossible to comprehend. It is an extension of herself. She takes discordant colours which represent all the things she eats, and the seemingly disordered is transformed and placed very deliberately in its right place, revealing its perfection. For Weaver, she and her land are inseparable: they are the same. We realise this does not fit in with conventional western views of portraiture, but portraiture is about extending our perceptions of who we are. To understand Weaver, one must know her land, because they exist together and define each other.

Weaver was born circa 1928 at Lungurang, a jila (living water) in the Great Sandy Desert. This place is near Wirnpa country on the Canning Stock Route. Weaver grew up in this country and travelled around with her two mothers and father before being married off to her promised husband. After mining started in the Pilbara much of the valuable underground creek system was disturbed, creating a devastating drought in the Yulparija country. Many people died and others moved away. With her husband and children Weaver continued to travel further from home in search of water. Eventually they came to be with Weaver’s sister at Bidyadanga, this was in the late 1960’s. She spent most of her life living a traditional lifestyle and is considered to be the senior law woman for the Yulparija people.