Lena Nyadbi

Lena Nyadbi (1936 – 7 July 2024) was an Australian contemporary Indigenous Australian artist from the Warmun Community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Her works include Dayiwul Lirlmim, details of which were painted on the roof of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. The resulting installation can only be seen from the air, including the Eiffel Tower and Google Earth.

Early life

Lena Nyadbi, of the Gija people, by her own estimate, was born circa 1936 at Warnmarnjulugun lagoon near Greenvale Station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Her father and mother died whilst she was at a young age, and she was raised by her older sister, Goody Barrett, on Lissadell Station.

From a young age, Nyadbi served as an indentured labourer on cattle stations in the region. She learned milking of cows, cattle mustering and how to ride horses which were not broken. Nyadbi recalls the station mistress would drag her to the kitchens and would teach her by force to carry cups of tea without spilling any. Nyadbi along with many Gija people were forced to relocate to the Warmun Community. In the 1970s the Warmun Art Movement was formed, and it during this time that Nyadbi lived amongst artists such as Hector Jandany, Queenie McKenzie, Rover Thomas, Jack Britten, Paddy Jaminji and George Mung Mung. 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.

Nyadbi was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Australia Day Honours for "distinguished service to the visual arts as a contemporary Indigenous artist".

Solo exhibitions

Kintolai Gallery, Adelaide – 2000 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2000 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2005 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2007 Painting my Country – Always, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2010 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2012 Starry Night, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne – 2016