Ngarluma Country, it’s beautiful Country, it’s got lots of stories. Ngarluma Country and Thalayindi, [Croydon], part of my family’s Country, there is a special waterhole there, the muramburri yinda and my family still keeps connection to that part of the Country. We go out there, and spend the day, if not a weekend there, so that’s our part of being Ngarluma, maintaining that Country, and I often paint the waterhole, it’s an important part of Country.
Jill Churnside is a senior Ngarluma artist from the Palyirri skin group, born in 1948 at Pyramid Station near Roebourne.
Jill has been painting independently for over a decade. She paints a variety of subjects in detailed, dense, compositions, covering the canvas in colours evoking the vibrant palette of the Pilbara. Her socio-historical paintings reference events of historical and personal importance, including the 1946 Pilbara Strike, the 1950s nuclear bomb testing on Montebellos Islands, and her son’s initiation into the Law during the Birdarra Law time.
Jill has twice won the Most Outstanding Work at the Hedland Art Awards. Her work has appeared in exhibitions in Perth and Sydney, and is held in private and institutional collections across Australia and overseas.