REMINDER: Opening this Saturday

Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul

Kunthurlt – Flat Reef


OPENING EVENT: Saturday 15th January, 2 – 4pm
Place: Alcaston Gallery, 11 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3065

To RSVP please call the gallery on 03 9418 6444 or email us at rsvp@alcastongallery.com.au

Alcaston Gallery supporting Queensland & their artists

To donate to the Premiers Flood Relief Appeal click here

To Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh, our colleagues and friends all over Queensland,

We want you to know we are thinking of you at this very distressing time, if positive thoughts help, everyone connected with Alcaston Gallery is with you at this time.

Alcaston Gallery has opened for 2011 with an ironical but spectacular exhibition by Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul.

It is timely to reflect on Paula Paul, her family including Sally Gabori and the Kaiadilt people in remote Queensland where they were once settled on the small Gulf of Carpentaria Island, Bentinck Island. They lived completely traditional lives up to the late 1940’s from when time began. Then “a natural disaster – high seas that engulfed their fresh water supplies and submerged much of their Island home – created an opportunity for the mission on nearby Mornington Island to transport the Kaiadilt population there” ¹

This spectacular exhibition reflects the traditional lifestyle of the artist, the glorious colour and waters of far north Queensland, the connection with country but the lifestyle that was taken away from them when the power of water changed their lifestyles forever.

For me, as I am sure you will too, find it extraordinary that Paula and her relations, having had no contact with the wider non indigenous world before the flood, including no art history on the island, late in life have found joy in painting, capturing so gloriously in paint their history and landscapes of Bentinck Island.


The exhibition is now online! To view artworks and details, click here to go to the Alcaston Gallery website.

Exhibition dates: 11 January – 4 February 2011


Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul paints with a small group of women from Bentinck Island, the largest of a small group of islands in Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria. Born in the first half of the twentieth Century, the women grew up uninfluenced by European ways; their lives were dominated by the traditions of their Kaiadilt ancestors. Eventually, these remote islanders were evicted to Mornington Island to a Methodist mission.

Paula Paul’s paintings often describe the flat reefs in and around Bentinck Island, and the shells that are found on the beach, as Professor Nick Evans explains:

“…some shells are shown on the beach, and this demonstrates an important element of how Kaiadilt women cook, Cockle shells in particular, lining them up in pleasing patterns in the ashes as they cook them. In Kayardild this is known as dirrbathat wuranki bijurri.”

“We each painted our country area which was special for us. Our painting is all of our country. That’s what the title means – country, place, land – land of all.”

This is Paula Paul’s third solo exhibition, and she has also contributed to several group showings with her Kaiadilt family from Bentinck Island, including Sally Gabori. Alcaston Gallery is delighted to share these engaging paintings with all art lovers.

Best wishes for 2011



Beverly Knight