Sonya Edney is an Yingarrda-Wadjarri artist from the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. She launched her first sell-out exhibition at Japingka in 2019 and this was repeated in 2021. Sonya's powerful work gained more widespread acclaim when featured in a major multi-media presentation, Seven Sisters, at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardipin 2020. In 2023, Sonya's work again captured public attention at another high-profile event. Her art was featured in a spectacular drone show, First Lights — Nyinggulu at the drone show at Cardabia Station, as part of the Dark Sky Festival in Exmouth during the time of the Total Solar Eclipse. 
 In this interview, Sonya discusses the Exmouth experience and her upcoming fourth solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery.



First Lights — Nyinggulu

Can you describe the April Exmouth Solar Eclipse event, First Lights — Nyinggulu presentation? For someone who wasn't there, what was that first drone show like at Cardabia Station? What were your feelings as you watched your work presented in that way?

It was amazing. The drone show began with just the sound of boomerangs tapping together. Then up came the lights of the drones in waves, which formed into the spirit. This is the story about the spirit world and the creation of the universe and how in the beginning, there were no birds and there was just silence.

The narrator went on to tell the story about the Jirndarl and Willarda, the sun and the moon and what the world was like before the first eclipse happened. She was telling it like a love story. How these two came together and made love, and that is how the stars came to be born.

At that point, the drones formed a circle and came together. The narrator was telling the story and singing in traditional language. The lights of the stars coming together and moving apart. Telling the story of how she was pregnant and then all the stars were born. Those stars formed the shape of a huge whale shark in the night sky.

And then they talked about the whale shark, about the universe, that it belonged to him. And she, Jirndarl, was the mother. It was just about this Dreamtime and Dreaming in the spirit world. That's the whole story about the Dreaming.

Is there any aspect of the event that took you by surprise?

The drone images were just like how I painted on the canvas. I paint about the stars, about the Dreamings and seeing my artwork being taken up to the next level, going up with the drones into the night sky, it was just unreal. It was just mind-blowing. I felt overwhelmed that I'd achieved so much in my life as an artist, as a visual artist, by just drawing.

I didn't expect that the presentation would happen like that with the story. There were lights reflecting on the hill. It was out in the station, but it was when the drones were on top of the hill, there were caves and things like that, and light was shining on the rocks. It was similar to how I do my paintings. I was amazed by it. It is something I will never forget.

When these high-profile events feature your art, how does it affect you and your work?

It inspires me more. As soon as I got back from Coral Bay, Cardabia, and Exmouth, the first painting I did was about that solar eclipse painting. That's what I created. It was the feeling of being out there, seeing the drone show and seeing the eclipse.

You started painting at home in the Burringurrah community, and now your work is featured in high-profile events like the WA Museum and First Lights - Nyinggulu. How has life changed for you, and what has stayed the same?

It changed a lot as I got older. I painted all my life in all different mediums, just working with other artists, living up there up in the Pilbara and Mid West, and just doing paintings at home. Sometimes you're painting just to get by. 'Cause I never had much money then. And then just to help my family. And I said, "Well, I'll do a painting, and we'll get some food." So I did things like that,  and so I just said, "Oh, wait there, I'll come back." And then I came back, and we went shopping.

But now, just in these five years, Japingka has opened the doorway. They taken me from living out in the bush to where I am today. A lot of people want me to do projects here and there. There's got to be one person in the family that's going to achieve all these things. And I've achieved a lot in my life. I've been through so much, and you don't expect this to happen. It's like a dream, like a dream come true. I'm still believing in myself, and I'm looking forward to doing more.