PEGGY
PATRICK
Peggy Patrick –
Dirrmingali, Barratjil – Naangari (c. 1930)
Peggy Patrick, artist with Jirrawun Arts and chairperson of the Neminuwarlin
Dance Group, has done
just about every job that anyone in the Kimberley, man or woman, could
have done during the twentieth
century apart from helicopter pilot. She has been stockman, drover,
station cook, brick maker, windmill
mechanic, electrician, barmaid, housekeeper, dressmaker, fencer, nurse,
midwife, painter, teacher, singer,
dancer, storyteller, hunter and keeper of traditional Law.
She grew up in the bush learning everything practical, artistic and
spiritual connected with traditional life
and has the respect of her peers as a Law woman. She has been involved
in the political and cultural life
of the East Kimberley in many ways including time as a member of the
Kimberley Land Council (KLC), the
Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC) and the Warmun
Excecutive Committees. She
was chairperson of Nine-Mile Community (Gooda-Gooda) at Wyndham for
nine years. More recently she
was chairperson of Dawul Gidja Culture Centre working in association
with Argyle Diamond Mine to run
a successful cross-cultural exchange program.
She has been involved in or touched by all kind of significant historical
events,. Her family was deeply
affected by the tragic events associated with the invasion by Europeans,
losing many relations in the
Mistake Creek massacre and other relations in the poisoning described
in the Bedford Downs Massacre
Joonba first staged at the Telstra Art Award in September 2000. She
was a signatory to the first Argyle
agreement when the diamond mine started and was deeply involved in the
development of the new
agreement signed in 2005. She was in Paris dancing Lirrga and the Gurirr-gurirr
dreamed by Rover
Thomas when Princess Diana died and she met Nelson Mandela in America.
She has wonderful stage presence enabling her to present deeply felt
emotion in a public context. In
Darwin in September she spoke at the closing ceremony for Rusty Peters
and Peter Adsetts “Two Laws,
One Big Spirit” exhibition at 24Hour Art, of the feeling she had
for the people who were tragically lost.
There was not a dry eye in the gallery.
She led the Neminuwarlin Performance Group in its production of Fire,
fire, burning bright at the Perth
International Arts Festival and the Melbourne International Festival
of the Arts during February and
October 2002.
Fire, fire, burning bright was a stage performance telling the story
of the Bedford Downs massacre. It
incorporated a Joonba, a song and dance cycle, given to a clever man
by the spirits of the people who
died. The Joonba had been performed in secret by relations in the East
Kimberly and never shown to
Europeans. Patrick first saw this Joonba when she was a girl of about
seven. In 2000 Patrick’s
brother the late Timmy Timms and his brother-in-law Paddy Bedford revealed
the existence of the
Joonba and “woke up” the song, rehearsing with Patrick and
other relations to stage a performance
at the Telstra Art Award in Darwin that year. Planning for the stage
performance Fire, fire, burning
bright had already commenced when Patrick’s brother Timmy Timms
died on the last day of 2000.
Usually when someone dies, the songs they are deeply associated with
are not performed for a number
of years after the death. It was a wonderful example of her cou8rage
and her deep commitment to
maintenance of song and dance and to reconciliation that Patrick was
able to keep going as the leader
of the performance after losing her brother.
Before Patrick was born her mother had been living at Bedford Downs.
Her two older brothers the late
Timmy Timms and Freddy Timms’ father were born there. Her father
was on of the large group of people
arrested and sent to jail after the killing of the bullock that eventually
caused the massacre told of
in the Joonba. On release from jail the people were given ‘tickets’
and told to return to Bedford Downs.
Some of them threw the tickets away. Those who went back with the tickets
were killed. Patrick’s
father was on of the people who pulled off the ticket and did not go
back to Bedford in Gija country
after being in jail.
Patrick’s mother was a Miriwoong woman. After her father was released
from jail he picked up her
mother and two older brothers and they went to live for a while on Ivanhoe
Station, part of Miriwoong
country. Patrick was born near the Ord River during that time, close
to the site of present day
Kununurra. Her bush name Dirrmingali refers to the brightness of the
red rock of Kelly’s Knob in the
late afternoon. Her other name Barratjil belongs to women of Naangari
skin and the eagle dreaming
that goes with that skin. It refers to the way the eagle dives to grab
his prey with feet outstretched.
When she was a baby her family lived in the bush waway from white people
for much of the time. They
travelled by foot from Ivanhoe back to Doon Doon following the Dunham
River, calling at Kingston
Rest and eventually going to Theringinm, old Greenvale station, now
part of Bow River Station. Her
parents got work there and stayed. This is where she and her two older
brothers grew up and her
younger sister and brother were born. When Walter McCale gave up Greenvale,
her family went to
Turkey Creek wor a while.
Then the Lilly’s settled at Bow River and Mrs Lilly “saw
us young girls going to waste at Turkey Creek
with no work.” She said “Bring them here and I’ll
teach them to be kitchen maids, milk nanny-goats,
water gardens, iron clothes, clean the house. They can work for me.”
Jiba yirrayitjendem wayininka wajbalumba binarriwurrun-yarre.”
“We were frightened because we did not know white people.”
Well binarriwa yirrayiti-birrl wayinigana now, Bow River-yurrung now
nawarrarra ngayinay, yirrayin, shift’em
yimperritbe-yarre Bow River-yorrung now. Warreck yirrani. And danji
yirraniying-ngarri Bow Rivan.
“But we learned to work. We moved to Bow River, we worked there
and we stayed there.”
Still glbingamam mayim jurt yirranyjende yarrownyga. We never interfare
much la wajbalum, nguwangarnan-
yarre. Jilba yirrayitjonto.
“We still ate mostly bush food. We did not have much to do with
the white people. We were still frightened.”
Patrick had eight children. She has lost three of them. She has twenty-eight
grand children and thirteen
great-grandchildren.
Her first three children, a girl and two boys, were born at Bow River.
Her second child, Clancy is the
reincarnation of Mamanda, the station worker who was the last person
to die as told of in the Joonba. She
left Bow River to work for a while with her three children at Moolaboola
the then government owned
station nearest to Halls Creek. Moolaboola, which had been run as a
government camp rather lik a
concentration camp, was closed when sold to a private owner, Goldman.
He loaded everyone onto a
truck and took them to Fitzroy Crossing. Peggy and her children
were among the people taken.
Patrick was sawing for ‘one old missus’ at Fitzroy Crossing
for a while but was scared that her son
Clancy would drown in the river. She worked for while at Christmas Creek,
Derby and Halls Creek
before going to work for the Quiltys on Landsdowne.
She worked there for a few years managing a stock camp with her husband
John Patrick. She owned
her own saddle and did all types of stock work. Her fourth child was
born there. She was persuaded
to go back to Bow River because her mother needed her there. Her youngest
children were born there.
Patrick left Bow River when equal wages were brought in and the managers
said “Ah, we can’t keep
you fellas we can’t pay you money.” She was still caring
for seven children and she went to Wyndham
where she started the Guda-Guda community at Nine Mile. She was the
chairperson of the village
there for nine years and worked at the school and at the hospital. Since
then she has lived at Doon
Doon, Crocodile Hole, Warmun (Turkey Creek) and Bow River.
From an early age she took an interest in traditional song and dance.
She listened to all the songs
she heard when she was youn and remembers them all.
Junpam tek yirramanjente kirli-kirlirrangaem perrayinte-ngarri-yirri,
pinarrik yimperramanpente-
yarri. Junpamka interest yirramante-pirri tek yirramanjente, warrk-karri
wumperramante, ngalany-
ngarri wumperramante, painting-ngarri wumperramante, tek yirramanyjente.
“We used to watch all the different Joonba they brought to our
place from the west. They used to
teach us to dance, sing, and paint and we watched them.
Well Growap-karri ngenayin, I bin thinking now ngay-warriny. Wayinima
numpum-ngerruwa ngayin.
Wayinikana Junpam thuwu-thuwum, larmgip perraward-kirri. Ngalanya ngilyinke
now. Warrk killyinki,
ngalany ngliyinka. Waell wayinikana now ngyina darmgik januwartja-kirri
corroboree. Linga-linga
ngenard-nguyu junpal now. Any junpa come from nother place, hook’em
nyilemenke-pirrl straight away.
“When I grew up a bit I thought “I should do that too.”
Then all the different songs stuck in my head.
I sing them now. I dance and I sing. The song is lodged in my brain.
Any song that comes from
another place I can remember it straight away.
Peggy has a long history of teaching song and dance. She taught thirteen
children to dance when
she lived at Wyndham and they won a prize with the dance in Darwin.
She taught dancing and singing
at Doon Doon school and at the school that used to be at Crocodile Hole.
She has also been in demand as a teacher for adults. The National Aboriginal
and Islander Skills
Development Association (NAISDA) Dance Theatre invited her to go to
Sydney four times with her
brother Timmy Timms, sons Clancy and Ray, niece Mona Ramsay and singer,
story teller and painter
Hector Jandany. They thought traditional song and dance to the NAISDA
dancers. She worked with
choreographer Stephen Page in 1990. On two occatsions dancers from the
city visited the East
Kimberley to show people the dances she taught them.
As well as her long, passionate involvement with the performance arts
Patrick was one of the founding
members of Jirrawun Arts and has been painting with the company since
that time. Her painting
Mistake Creek 2000 was included in the Blood on the Spinifex exhibition
held at The Ian Potter
Museum of Art, Melbourne University between December 2002 and March
2003.
In 2005 and 2006 Peggy Patrick exhibited paintings at Sherman Galleries
in Sydney In the Beyond
the Frontier and Women’s Business exhibitions respectively. In
2007 she sang for the Neminuwarlin
Performance Group when they danced at the opening of the Paddy Bedford
exhibition at the Art
Gallery of Western Australia.
Exhibitions
2006
Womens Business, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
2005
Jirrawyn in the House A Contemporary Experience form the East Kimberley,
Parliament House, Canberra
Beyond the Frontier, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
2003
Jirrawun Jazz, Rarf Artspace, Darwin
2002
Blood on the Spinifex, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
1999
Painting Country, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
My Country, Northern Territory University Gallery, Darwin
1998
Jirrawun Artists from Crocodile Hjoe, Jemma Stowe, Perth
Selected Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Private and Corporate Collections Australia and Internationally
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