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Paddy Bedford - Goowoomji, Nyunkuny – Jawalyi (c. 1922) Paddy Bedford, commonly known by his nickname, Goowoomji, and also by his Gija name, Nyunkuny, was a man of Jawalyi skin who was born at Bedford Downs Station in the East Kimberley. His name, Paddy, was given by station manager Paddy Quilty, who, on hearing the newly born child cry at the birth tree, said, ‘Is it a boy or a girl? Well name him Paddy after me’. Paddy Bedford grew up on Bedford Downs where he learned to work as a cattleman for the usual rations and tobacco. His sister, Liddy, married Timmy Timms at Greenvale Station just north of Bedford Downs when they were very young. Bedford also sometimes worked with his brother-in-law on Greenvale and on Bow River Station after Greenvale became part of Bow River. As well, he spent time working on Texas Downs and Tableland Stations. Like all his contemporaries, Bedford combined stock work for the pastoralists with development of knowledge of traditional law and ceremony. He was famous as a good-looking dancer, and for being able to dodge spears in a fight. A couple of years before Paddy Bedford’s birth, a group of his Gija and Worla relations had been murdered by strychnine poisoning in retaliation for the killing of one milking cow near Mt. King, an Emu Dreaming site on Bedford Downs. After the murders, the people moved out to the government station at Violet Valley, but by the time of the artist’s birth they had been persuaded to return to work at Bedford Downs. In 2000, together with fellow Jirrawun artist, the late Timmy Timms, Bedford revealed the existence of a Joonba, a song and dance cycle telling the story of the Bedford Downs killings that had not previously been shown to outsiders. The artist had been a singer and dancer in many performances of this Joonba when he was a young man. The song and dance cycle together with oral histories by the two artists formed the basis for the Neminuwarlin Performance Group’s production Fire, fire burning bright. This performance premiered at the Perth International Arts Festival in February 2002 and was staged at Victoria’s State Theatre as part of the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts in October the same year. Paddy Bedford was a generous sponsor of both productions. When young, Paddy Bedford and Timmy Timms were taken to Bungarin, the leprosarium near Derby. They had not contracted leprosy, but stayed at Bungarin for a few years before returning to the East Kimberley. During this time, Bedford met the late Emily Watson, the mother of three of his children, Cathie, Phillip and Patricia. Cathie was born at Bungarin and the others were born in Derby. His other daughter, Theresa Morgan, whose mother was a Worla woman from Oombulgarri, was also born in Derby. Bedford’s older brother’s daughter, Mary-Lou Bedford, whom he considers to be his daughter in the traditional way, was born at Bedford Downs. When Bedford returned to the East Kimberley, he continued to combine stock work with ceremonial life, making long trips between Bow River, Fitzroy Crossing, Derby and Oombulgarri in connection with law business. Paddy Bedford worked for a short time in Wyndham for the Main Roads Department, helping to build part of the Gibb River Road and the road to Moochalabra Dam. Following recovery from an injury sustained while shifting heavy rocks, Bedford returned to Bedford Downs where he worked until the time a station manager killed all the camp dogs and he and his Gija wife, the late Topsy Bedford, and all remaining Gija workers left for good and moved to Warmun (Turkey Creek). As a senior law man, Paddy Bedford has been involved in painting as part of ceremony all his life. He began painting on canvas for exhibition after Freddie Timms established Jirrawun Arts at Rugun (Crocodile Hole) in 1997. Bedford’s paintings combine important family Dreamings such as Emu, Turkey and Cockatoo with roads, rivers, the living areas for traditional life and stock camp life, stock-yards and country visited while mustering. Two of Paddy Bedford’s works, Emu Dreaming and Bedford Downs massacre and Two women looking at the Bedford Downs massacre burning place were included in the exhibition Blood on the Spinifex at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne in 2002–03. Bedford’s work was central to True stories: the Art of the East Kimberley which opened at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in January 2003. Prior to this exhibition the gallery acquired the Jirrawun Suite of twenty-three gouaches, including fifteen by Bedford. Paddy Bedford is one of eight Indigenous Australian artists commissioned by the Musée du quai Branly which opened in June 2006 in Paris. One of Bedford’s paintings, Thoowoonggoonarrin 2006 has been reproduced as a permanent installation on the ground floor of the museum. Also in 2006, Paddy Bedford, a major retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. In 2007 this exhibition toured to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria and the University of Queensland Art Museum in Brisbane. Paddy Bedford passed away in Kununurra on the 14th July 2007. © Paddy Bedford Estate and Jirrawun Arts Solo exhibitions 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1998 Group exhibitions 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 Commissions 2006 |