Marie Napurulla

Marie is one of the indigenous artists who was taken from her parents and brought up in a foster family (stolen generation). She is married now and has three children.   About her dreaming she writes: 

“Grandmothers Journey through sacred country” Our country is sacred to us, it nurtures our spirit and we feel to care for it. My great grandmother traditionally lived around the Kings Canyon (Wattarrka) area. When the white cattle men came to the area they moved our people onto stations to stop them taking the cattle for food and to get them working the cattle stations. My grandmother was born at Tempe Downs Station and made the journey with her mother from Tempe Downs to Areyonga then Hermannsburg to Jay Creek to attend to ceremonies and maintain their nomadic lifestyle. When nanna was 10 years old she was taken from my Great grandmother by white authorities who were removing half-caste children from their mothers to bring them up as white people. Nanna was placed in the bungalow which was a home for the kids and is now the old telegraph station. Nanna left the bungalow when she was old enough to become a domestic .She travelled north to Pine Creek north of Katherine where my mother was born. At an early age mum was also taken away and was placed on Melville Island in Garden Point Mission which was run by the Good Shepherd Sisters. At age 14 (my) mum was sent to the Good Shepherd Convent in Ashfield Sydney where she was educated and trained to become a trained nurse. Mum met dad and they lived at Dora Creek in N.S.W where I was born and raised. I knew that I was Aboriginal because we always had visitors from the island call in when i was growing up. When I was about 30 I felt a strong calling to return to country so I went out to Alice Springs where I met family and learnt about our traditional country. My nanna and great nanna had both passed on when I returned but I was very lucky to have other close family members especially my old nanna Janice Pararoultja who gave me  “The Grandmothers Journey story”  and was adamant that I knew where I belonged . Her style and colour combination shows her extreme talent in art: “Simply stunning