About Lily Karadada
Lily Karadada was born circa 1937 in the bush at Ann River. She fondly refers to her place of birth as ‘My Country’. Her father passed away when she was very young. Lily returned to paint in Kulumbaru, where her story, the Wandjina, was told to her by her mother.
 
The Wandjina spirit embodies the Creation story and is the Rain spirit for the Kimberley region. His great powers bring the seasonal cyclonic rains that renew the land and ensure the regeneration of the wildlife. Lily Karadada paints the Wandjina figure as a compact and squat image, less elongated that many other representations. Lily Karadada regularly includes other totemic animals associated with her country, into her paintings.
 
Lily Karadada has painted using the traditional ochre pigments on a range of materials – on bark and on canvas, on wooden artefacts and traditional bark buckets and water carriers. Lily Karadada has been a significant representative of her culture and her legacy is carried on by other members of her family group.
 
Still painting occasionally well into her 80s, Lily Karadada has become closely associated with the Wandjina painting tradition of Kalumburu. The area where Lily Karadada was born, around the Mitchell Plateau, is rich with the ancient rock art sites depicting Wandjina and the more ancient Gwion Gwion totemic figures.
 
They hide in the caves of the Kimberley region. If people go to a cave where there are Wandjinas or Gwions, they must be careful not to disturb them. They must call out properly in the right language or the Wandjina might call up a ‘Big Cyclone’ to blow them away.
 
Wandjins- the Rain Maker, is a spirit who created the bush food. Ulumarra (long neck turtle), Gulnu (roots), Ungurr (rainbow snake), Kanmargu (bush yam), Namarku (mangies), Manula (eggs) and Kareyak (goanna), are all bush tuckers Lily paints and associates with the Wandjina. Lily also depicts the traditional clothing made from Yaruna (kangaroo hair) and Unurru (hair for making belts). Lily tells the story of how she used to carry her babies and rock them to sleep in a Namerka (cradles made by the women).
 
Exhibitions include
 
1981 Die kunst der Australischen Ureinwohner lebt, Museum fur Volkerkunde,
Leipzig, Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Dresden GERMANY
1988 Karnta, Touring South-East Asia
1990 Balance 1990 Brisbane QLD
1991 Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW
1992 Broome Fringe Festival WA
1993 Images of Power, National Gallery of Victoria VIC
1994 Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria VIC
2007 Ochre on Board, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
 
Collections include
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
Christensen Collection, held Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.