Indigenous artworks taken on 5,000km road trip from the Pilbara to Biennale of Sydney
Yindjibarndi elder and artist Wendy Hubert shares her cultural knowledge through painting. (Supplied: Philip Davies/Juluwarlu Art Group)
There are no signs along the rocky dirt roads to guide you to Ngurrawaana, a remote West Australian community home to some 30 people.
Closed to the public and 1,600 kilometres north of Perth, Ngurrawaana is the only community with secure title for Yindjibarndi people in their ancestral lands.
Ngurrawaana was founded by respected elders as a dry community. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
The community is now sharing its history and culture through the art of respected elder and artist Wendy Hubert, whose works will go on display at the Biennale of Sydney this weekend, some 5,000km away.
"Here I am as an artist, I can teach a lot of things," she said.
Wendy Hubert paints memories of being on country with her father and grannies. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
Celebrating culture
Ngurrawaana was established in 1982 for Indigenous youth to be raised in their traditional culture.
Ngurrawaana means "a place of homecoming" in Yindjibarndi language. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
Hubert said her art depicted the impact that colonisation and mining had on the community and the Pilbara region, including the challenges of finding bush food.
But the works also celebrate the more than 50,000-year-old Yindjibarndi culture and Hubert's memories of being in the bush with her family.
"Culture is a meaningful thing for us, and we have got to pass it to our young generation," she said.
"I stepped in the art world, and I thought I could make it better for them."
Wendy Hubert mostly paints with acrylics on canvas. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
From the red dirt to the big smoke
It took a group of rangers and family members 53 hours of driving across Australia over many days to deliver Hubert's artworks to Sydney.
A group of young Yindjibarndi rangers travelled to Sydney to help Wendy Hubert. (Supplied: Promod Thomas/Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation)
Lorraine Coppin, chief executive of the Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, said the journey was rooted in a cultural principle of reciprocity or Nyinyart.
Lorraine Coppin runs projects with more than 30 Yindjibarndi artists. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
"You always give your time, your experience, your culture, your knowledge and the blessings will come back," she said.
"We're not going to live forever, so that's why the engagement and the connection between bringing the young people on the journey is very important for our future."
Elders Wendy Hubert (left), Jean Norman and Lorraine Coppin at a significant cultural site. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
Materials from home
The installation will include Hubert's paintings as well as materials from her country, such as rocks, date palms, dirt and ceremony gear.
A convoy of cars and trucks drove the art to Sydney. (Supplied: Promod Thomas/Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation)
"We are sort of isolated from the eastern states, so we want to go to Sydney and get them to experience who we are … how we have that connection to our elders, country, animals, plants," Ms Coppin said.
Wendy Hubert started painting with Juluwarlu Art Group in 2019. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
Penrith Regional Gallery chief executive Toby Chapman said Hubert was the first artist they had worked with from the Pilbara.
"That in itself is a really great honour for us," he said.
"If only part of this project is an opportunity to share Yindjibarndi culture with [local]Darug culture, then that would be a major achievement for us."
Country first
Wendy Hubert says she mainly paints trees because it is important to protect country. (Supplied: Phil Davies/Juluwarlu Art Group)
Hubert said she loved creating art in her homeland partly because it had helped her grapple with some past traumas.
"I'm doing my garden for my life, my life story. I've done all those things for myself," she said.
"I'm an artist now — I work for myself, in other words, and that's a milestone in itself."
The biennale will open on March 14.
Wendy Hubert picked up painting later in life. (Supplied: Philip Davies/Juluwarlu Art Group)