Rosie Goodjie Paintings

Rosie Goodjie paints the waterholes and country around her birthplace at Kulyayi waterhole, located near Well 39 on the Canning Stock Route. Rosie Goodjie travelled all across this country with her family when she was young, moving between the waterholes that are central to life on her ancestral desert country. Rosie Goodjie’s extended family kinship group moved across these traditional lands on seasonal migrations to hunt and gather food.

Knowledge of the permanent desert waterholes, called Living water, was critical to the traditional inhabitants. Each waterhole was incorporated into the Dreaming stories of the region, and learned in a song cycle that contained all the information related to survival in the area. Long after her people migrated north to the settlements around the Kimberley region, Rosie Goodjie maintains a deep connection to her ancestral lands and the life her family group had lived there over millenia.

Rosie Goodjie says of her early life after leaving her desert home: “When I left my home lands, came north on the Canning Stock Route to Bililuna, Old Balgo. Catholic Mission there. Most Wangkajunka people travelled that way, when they left the desert to go towards white settlement. No mother, no father when Rosie go that way. No family now. Work at Bililuna. Look after nanny goat, milk ‘em every morning. Work for ration. Take ‘em to river, cook ‘em. Follow river all the way down, to Christmas Creek. Before kids. Working at station with Elsie Thomas and Nada Rawlins. Been learn English right there.” Aboriginal art status – Established artist.

Selected Exhibitions

2003 Artists of Wangkajungka: From the Great Sandy Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2004 Jila & Tali – Waterholes and Sandhills, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2004 Paintings from Wangkatjungka, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane QLD
2004 Striking Colours of the Living Desert – Wankatjungka Country, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney NSW
2004 Artists of Wangkatjungka – Stories of Country, Raintree Gallery, Darwin, NT
2005 Yirmpurr (Living Water) Recent Paintings from Wangkatjungka, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2005 Wangkatjunka Artists: Stories from The Great Sandy Desert, Tandanya
2006 Wangkatjungka Group Exhibition, Helen Maxwell, ACT
2007 Wangkatjungka Mapping Country, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2007 Desert Mosaic, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2008 Wangkatjungka Artists: Canning Stock Route, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2009 Desert Rains – Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2009 Kids and Mentors, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2010 Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2010 Wangkatjungka Artists, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne VIC