BA2840/1189: The hand of an old master, Gordon Barney in infrared, Warmun, May 2019

Summary

Aboriginal artists and partners Shirley Purdie and Gordon Barney paint at their home in Warmun and at the Warmun Art Centre. They travel to their home at Norton Bore and to Violet Valley where Shirley's brother Barry lives with his family. Shirley paints her Paperbark Dreaming story. "Shirley told me that a hunter, (who was an owl) came down to the bank of the Violet Valley Creek and made himself a hideout of paperbark so that he could spear Kangaroos as they came down to the creek to drink. The dollar bird (he is the rock at the front gate) was watching the hunter from a short distance away and laughing at the owl because he hadn’t covered himself up properly and the dollar bird could see his bum. The constant laugher of the dollar bird made the owl extremely angry and in a fit of rage the owl picked up his paperbark hide and threw it all around the banks of the creek. Over time the paperbark turned into the rocks that you can see at the creek crossing today. The owl then flew off to a nearby hilltop where he sat angrily and over time turned into a large rock on top of the peak."