Place | Oceania: Australia, Western Australia, Kimberley |
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Accession Number | AWM2017.665.1 |
Collection type | Art |
Measurement | framed: 64.6 cm x 95.2 cm x 5.9 cm |
Object type | Painting |
Physical description | natural earth pigments on canvas |
Maker |
McKenzie, Queenie Nakarra |
Place made | Australia: Western Australia, Warmun |
Date made | 1996 |
Conflict |
Period 1930-1939 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright |
Horso Creek killings
Queenie McKenzie was a Gija elder and a respected leader in her community. She was a law woman, teacher and artist, born on Old Texas Downs, a cattle station east of Turkey Creek (Warmun) in the East Kimberley. Her paintings reveal an intimate knowledge of this country, explored through landscapes and dreamings. Accounts of the experience of violent frontier conflict were passed down the generations, and these too informed her painting. 'Horso Creek killings' represents an incident from the 1880s in which a group of Gija people were shot by white men for driving off bullocks. Their bodies were burned to hide the evidence. One boy escaped by hiding in the carcass of a bullock, and was later found by his mother. Here, the white men hold rifles and wear white hats. Marks around the boab tree represent dead bodies.