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Goody Barrett - Lilwayi – Nyawurru (c.1930) Goody Barrett is a senior Gija woman who was born on Lissadell Station to the north of Warmun (Turkey Creek) in the East Kimberley in Western Australia in about 1930. Her Gija name is Lilwayi and her skin is Nyawurru. In the last thirty years the country on Lissadell Station has undergone massive changes on two counts. It is partly under the water of Lake Argyle formed by the damming of the Ord River and it is also the site of the Argyle Diamond Mine. The mine is situated on an important Dreaming site - the place of the Barramundi. Goody has been painting with Jirrawun Arts since 1998. Most of her pictures show Dreamings and the country on Lissadell Station that she got to know intimately when she was a child. As one of the traditional owners for the Argyle Diamond mine site Goody is often involved in the manthe ceremonies held there each week to ensure the safety of the workers. The barramundi scales painted on the bodies of dancers in some of these ceremonies represent the scales left as the barramundi jumped through the gap in the Dreamtime. These scales became the diamonds and have become one of Goody’s signature designs and are dramatically used by the artist in several spectacular black and white, eight and four-panel paintings entitled Lirnkirrel (Scales). The exhibitions Beyond the Frontier (2005) and Women’s Business (2006) held at Sherman Galleries in Sydney each featured one of these large-scale paintings. Several paintings by Goody were shown at the Miami Art Fair in January 2002 and one of her paintings, Hiding place and Man calling for his dogs 2002 was included in the Blood on the Spinifex exhibition held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne between December 2002 and March 2003. Her work was also included in the Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition - True Stories: Art of the East Kimberley. Goody is also a singer with the Neminuwarlin Performance Group. She sang in its production of Fire, Fire Burning Bright premiering at the Perth International Festival of the Arts in February 2002 and also staged at the State Theatre in Melbourne Victoria in October 2002. Goody can be heard in the Joonba on the group’s CD released in 2002. © Goody Barrett and Jirrawun Arts Exhibitions 2006 Womens Business, Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2005 Jirrawun in the House: A Contemporary Experience from the East Kimberley - Parliament House, Canberra Beyond the Frontier - Sherman Galleries, Sydney 2003 2002 2000 1999 My Country – Charles Darwin University Gallery, Darwin New art from the Kimberley - William Mora Galleries, Melbourne |