Deutscher and Hackett

Painted in the final year of the artist's life, Ord River, Horseman Creek and Neermeroni - The Rain Maker, traverses the topographical and mythological terrain of Queenie McKenzie's beloved home, Texas Downs Station. The matriarch of a distinct and vital style, McKenzie's paintings demonstrate an individual knowledge and intimacy with a place which is contained within a broader network of cultural practice. As a senior founding figure of the Warmun School of painting, McKenzie's reputation within the movement is matched only by that of her good friend and mentor, Rover Thomas. As noted by Eric Kjellgren, Associate Curator of Oceania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'In little more than a decade of active painting, Queenie McKenzie emerged as a prominent and compelling commentator on the Aboriginal experience. Participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions, she created works that range in scope from the creation of the world, through the violent encounters of the colonial era, to the present day.'¹

Ord River, Horseman Creek and Neermeroni - The Rain Maker employs the artist's distinctive flattening of formal perspective, the landscape compressed so that the numerous elements which constitute this particular narrative may be illustrated. Through the re-arrangement of physical spatial relationships, McKenzie tethers the multiple sites which comprise Neermeroni into a composition of striking unity.

This painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Red Rock Art which describes the various elements in the painting as thus: 'This work depicts places on Texas Downs Station in the East Kimberley. The line running left to right through the work is the Ord River, the intersecting line running in from the bottom right represents Horseman Creek. In the hill to the left of the work boab trees are depicted, this place is associated with Neermeroni - "The Rain Maker". Neermeroni is an important "power" place for Gija women. The artist's words- "If you cut em that trunk anywhere you will make'm rain come up." There are other boab trees in the area that are important sites for different aspects of women's law. The artist was always very active in traditional law practice and often led women's ceremony.'

1. Perkins, H., Tradition Today, Indigenous Arts in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, p. 64

MERRYN SCHRIEVER