Quentin Bryce, Lena Nyadbi, Director of the
Musée du quai Branly Stéphane Martin and
Australia Council for the Arts Chair
Rupert Myer at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris for the handover ceremony of
Dayiwul Lirlmim (in background) in June 2013. In 1998, the same year the
Warmun Art Centre opened its doors, Nyadbi began painting full-time. Nyadbi had spent many years watching and learning from the other artists in Warmun, and her mentor, Paddy Jaminji, taught her the time-honoured techniques of grinding
ochre and
charcoal, and using her hands to place the charcoal onto a canvas. Nyadbi creates her own paint and her style is known for its "rich, spare aesthetic", as well as her "preference for strongly contrasting colours" and "repeated 'stanzas' of symbols" that pair with her ancestral narratives. Nyadbi typically painted two
dreaming stories (
ngarranggarni in the Gija language); the
Jimbirlam Ngarranggarni (Spearhead Dreaming) and
Dayiwul Lirlmim Ngarranggarni (
Barramundi Scales Dreaming). Her
Jimbirlam Ngarranggarni pieces tell the story of the country of her father to the north and east of the Warmun Community on the Doon Doon side of the
Great Northern Highway, whilst her
Dayiwul Lirlmim Ngarranggarni works tell the story of the land of her mother, the Dayiwul Country which is the location of the
Argyle Diamond Mine. In 2002, director of the
Musée du quai Branly,
Stéphane Martin, and the museums architect
Jean Nouvel, enlisted the help of then-
French President Jacques Chirac to have the
Australian government and the
Australia Council for the Arts find indigenous Australian artists for a project, which would see their art being displayed on the then-unopened museum in ways reminiscent of their traditional wayson walls, windows and ceilings. The piece
Jimbirlam and Kumerra, also referred to as
Jimbirla and Gemerre, meaning
Spearheads and Scarifications, was originally a black-and-white piece, but it was decided by the museum to convert it to a grey-on-grey piece, so that it would fit in with the aesthetics of the Haussmannian buildings across from the museum. Early experiments for the templates which would eventually be placed on the museum exterior wall were rejected by Nyadbi because they lacked contrast and she believed it made her artwork look like sausages. Her initial reluctance to approve the template designs almost led to her being ejected from the project. The resultant rendering of the piece is now found on an exterior wall of the museum and is visible from
rue de l'Université.
Hideout Nyadbi's 2002 painting
Hideout depicts the story of her family when they were forced to take shelter in a cave from "murderous pastoralists" who were chasing after them; this was a story that she'd hear as she grew up. Eventually her family made it out of the cave through a different opening and made their way above to a ridge where they watched the gadiya (white people) shoot into the area in front of the cave in search of them. The bottom portion of
Hideout depicts the cave where her family hid, as well as a nearby site belonging to an ancestral bat, and a gathering place where Gija people would grind seeds and prepare food.
Hideout is largely a contrast of black and white ochre, but is remedied by a stanza of red spearheads in the top half of her painting. Nyadbi's combination of symbols and different locations brings together the past, present, and ancestral times (Ngarrangkarni).
Dayiwul Lirlmim During a 2011 meeting with
Harold Mitchell, Stéphane Martin presented a plan to transform part of the roof of the museum into a display of
Aboriginal art, continuing on from the previous works of indigenous artists being made part of the fabric of the museum. Mitchell, who saw the opportunity of gaining increased exposure of Aboriginal art, given the roof can be viewed from the
Eiffel Tower, agreed to help. After approaches to the Australia Council for the Arts, a committee, which included
Art Gallery of New South Wales indigenous art curator
Hetti Perkins, put forward a recommendation for Nyadbi's work to be chosen to adorn the rooftop of the museum. Kathy Keele, the CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, stated that the committee chose Nyadbi as her works struck a chord with the museum, as the building is shaped like a fish and is on the banks of the
Seine. The installation was inaugurated on 6 June 2013, and saw Nyadbi and other dignitaries take a trip up the Eiffel Tower to view the work. Upon seeing her work on the rooftop Nyadbi shed tears, explaining that apart from feeling a great sense of excitement and pride it made her feel sorry for her traditional lands and whilst the diamond mine had destroyed the landscape of her country, the
dreaming was still alive. Lee-Ann Buckskin, the chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, shared the tears with Nyadbi and said that the
Dayiwul Lirlmim installation would bring to the attention to the people who see it of what is one of the world's oldest cultures. Mitchell said the installation of the artwork on the rooftop of the museum would allow Australia to "show off our first peoples to the world," and further stated "(w)e must grab these opportunities where we can to tell the world who and what we are." Then-
Federal Arts Minister,
Tony Burke, stated that the installation signified the importance that is placed on the culture of indigenous Australia, and also held it up as an example of using art as a form of
soft diplomacy. == Awards and recognition ==