Death of Major at Nine Mile

'Death of Major at Nine Mile' was exhibited in Freddie Timms' solo exhibition at Watter’s Gallery in 1999 which explored the history of the Aboriginal rebel and bush ranger Major, who was shot dead by the Western Australian police in 1908, after killing whites at Blackfella Creek. According to Giga legend, Major was an Aboriginal man, likely Wardaman from Country near Katherine, who at a very young age was bought to Texas Downs, near Warmun, by a man named Jack Kelly. Suffering terrible treatment and abuse as a child, and later after several brutal incidents, he took to the hills north of Turkey Creek, where he held up travelers as a bush ranger. There in the hills he was hunted down by police and killed at a place called Nine Mile, to the east of Warmun.

Before Major was captured and killed, he himself had murdered three white men at Blackfella Creek, which at that time featured a small station settlement that is now part of Lissadell. Major is said to have killed these men in retribution for the terrible murders and the atrocities that had been made against a large number of Gija people at a place called Mistake Creek. Those who survived that massacre, including Timms' grandmother and her sister, were taken to Blackfella Creek by the white men. After murdering the white men, Major rescued Timms' grandmother and her sister and took them back to join his party of Gija in the hills.

Major is a hero for the Gija. Timms, for example, grew up learning of Major's life from his Grandmother who had witnessed his death. Major holds a strong place in Gija history, much like Ned Kelly in European Australian history, but remains an ambiguous hero, as his knowledge of the bush repeatedly led white men to Gija camps, leading to terrible massacres. Timms' depiction of Major was influenced by his visit to an exhibition of Sydney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series, evident in the squarish shape he gave to Major’s head.

Freddie Timms (1946-2017) was a senior Gija law man arguably one of the most renowned painters of the East Kimberley. Known by his Gija skin name 'Ngarrmaliny' he was the son-in-law of Paddy Bedford and together they transformed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders art world in the late 1990s with the establishment of the Jirrawun Art Collective (1999-2008).