The Paintings of Acclaimed Artist Janet Koongotema Are Joyful Expressions of Country

Each of the 11 new paintings by Janet Koongotema in the upcoming exhibition, Archer River Country tells a story of ancestry, culture and Country. And each is defined by Koongotema’s signature dazzling colour and layers of horizontal and vertical lines. But one in particular is an especially powerful expression of the spirit that drives this Elder of the Winchanam clan of the Wik-Mungkan people of Cape York Peninsula.

That painting is Minh Themp (Burdekin Duck), with its many shades of blue water, and a small group of white Burdekin ducks tucked into the bottom right corner. These ducks are totemic ancestors for Koongotema’s Country, and here represent both the ancestral, the spiritual, and the profound connection between the artist and her environment.

“The water is full of different colours and the land has lots of family history,” Koongotema says. “That duck, minh themp, he is always flying around those places. That’s why I paint him a lot. Minh themp, Burdekin duck, is a family totem. There are plenty of themp on the Archer River, especially near my homelands. You can see them everywhere on the sandbanks.”

Archer River Country will be shown first at Melbourne Art Fair, and then at D Lan Galleries on Exhibition Street. The gallery will host a Q&A with Wik & Kugu Art Centre manager Gabe Waterman to open the latter exhibition on February 28. Archer River Country marks the 87-year-old artist’s first solo Melbourne exhibition. Her story is comparable with major Indigenous artists such as Emily Kam Kngwarray and Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, who also began painting late in life. Koongotema only began painting in 2008, though until then she had spent a lifetime practising the traditional art of weaving (she is now the sole keeper of weaving knowledge in her community).

“I was only a young girl when my aunty taught me to weave. I used to watch her. She told me that I would be a woman one day and to keep on weaving like she did. These are important practices to me and my people. This knowledge helped our people live before the white man came along. It helped us with our hunting and fishing for a very long time. My family on my father’s side have the dilly bag as a main totem.”

The dilly bag – the handwoven bag traditionally used for carrying food – is also a key inspiration for the paintings here, including Waangk Awa | Dilly Bag Story Place. Awa means “spiritual centre” in Wik-Mungkan, a place of stories and a concept that ripples through both the exhibition and Koongotema’s reflections on her work.

Koongotema is entirely self-taught as a painter, though her work has developed and gained exposure thanks to a longstanding connection with Wik & Kugu Arts Centre in Aurukun, in remote Far North Queensland. She’s been a finalist in both the Wynne Prize (for landscape) and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and today she stands as one of Queensland’s most acclaimed artists. Nearly 20 years after the switch from weaving, painting has proven a potent medium for conveying the cultural knowledge that defines her, and that she shares in her paintings.

“I can sit and paint all day,” she says. “This is the way I tell stories. I still like to weave but I have been focused on painting for a while now. Painting is a way for me to teach people about my Country. My Country is a very colourful place and full of life. I must tell other people to respect the Country too.”

This simplicity and profundity can be found throughout the paintings in Archer River Country. That river runs through – and in many ways defines – Koongotema’s ancestral lands: a water source, a site of story places, a home for Burdekin ducks, and an integral part of her art.

“This is sacred Country. The river goes all the way up. My paintings are about my Country, I always paint my Country, that’s why I’m painting these stories. Then we send these paintings away so people can see my Country. This Country belongs to Wik-Mungkan people like me.”

Archer River Country will be shown at Melbourne Art Fair from February 19 to 22, and at D Lan Galleries from February 28 to April 2. The gallery exhibition will open with a Q&A with curator, Vanessa Merlino and Wik & Kugu Arts Centre manager Gabe Waterman on opening day, February 28 at 3pm. To secure a spot, RSVP to enquiries@dlangalleries.com.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with D Lan Galleries.