Her broad facial features and lean frame make her easily distinguishable. And Peggy Patrick’s voice, although gentle, commands attention. ‘We want all people to be strong in their spirit and strong in their country.’ Peggy is an elder and leader of the Warmun people, an advocate for reconciliation and instrumental in promoting the history and stories of her people.
A community of around 400 predominantly Aboriginal people, Warmun is one of the hottest places on earth, in the same league as the Sahara desert. It is also one of the most isolated. The next town is Halls Creek, 165km away. Food is at a premium here, an apple will set you back a little over a dollar. Petrol, at $1.99 a litre, is also a little pricey. Both food and petrol are freighted up the west coast from Perth, along the Great Northern Highway, the lifeline of this community. Without it, the community’s few businesses—the local shop, the road house and the art centre—would suffer.
While the shop and the roadhouse provide the essentials for passing tourists and the families that live here, the art centre is a business returning much more. Although produced in the most modest of circumstances, Warmun art is renowned world-wide. More importantly, the sale of the art produced here provides the community with a growing economic independence and stability. The art centre itself has a colourful past; it was the first building erected here in 1890, 800km south-west of Darwin and almost 900km east of Broome. Originally an inn and butcher shop, the building was to become a post office in 1897 and later a telegraph station. During the early 1900s this post office served as an outlet for dispensing food rations to the needy. It became the art centre more than 80 years later, in 1998.
Now the artists sit in the shade under the building and paint in something like a meditative state. Each artist only paints their own country, the land in which they were born and raised, the land to which they belong. There is no such thing as a rough draft, each piece is permitted to take form during creation.
Many of the artists come from separate tribes and each paints the stories of their own people. Although most of the artists use traditional symbols, it is described as contemporary Aboriginal art. Some artists even incorporate Western style figures and emblems into