WARLAWOON COUNTRY, 2008
RAMMEY RAMSEY
ochres and pigments with synthetic binder on custom board
80.0 x 100.0 cm
signed with initials verso: RR
bears inscription verso: artist's name and Jirrawun Arts cat. RR 2008 04 175 CB
Jirrawun Arts, Wyndham, Western Australia
Raft Artspace, Darwin
The Laverty Collection, Sydney acquired from the above in August 2008
Jirrawun Colour. Rammey Ramsey & Freddie Timms, Raft Artspace, Darwin, in partnership with Jirrawun Arts, 16 August - 6 September 2008
Beyond Sacred: Australian Aboriginal Art: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, edition II, Kleimeyer Industries Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 2011, pp. 258 (illus.), 394
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Jirrawun Arts which states:
‘This is Warlawoon country, my country, that I painted here. When the strong wind comes blowing from the east it throws dust everywhere. The dust floats when the wind blows from the east. People used to walk along in the hot sun long ago. When they had been walking in the hot sun, never mind, they would bathe in the water and start off again in the cool time of the day.
It is a place for the rainbow snake, the dangerous one. In olden days just anyone could not go there. In early days if strange people went there the people who belonged there had to perform a welcoming ceremony, putting water from the country on them (the strangers). Lots of people would come to dance Joonba style song and dance. Then they would split up and leave. Those two (my parents) used to go around there. They lived there."