Image: Gertie DEERAL Jijirr-nay & Walngga-wi 2026, acrylic on canvas. QUT Art Collection. Purcahsed 2026.
This work is acrylic on canvas and measures 76.2 centimetres high by 76.2 centimetres wide. The work is unframed and displayed on a wallpaper with a design by fellow Hope Vale artist, Madge Bowen, who is now deceased. Her family have provided permission for her artwork and name to be incorporated into the exhibition in this way.
The title of this work is in Guugu Yimithirr the language spoken in Hope Vale and translates Jijirr-nay to Birds and walngga-wi to Lagoons. It is a scene of wetlands. At the bottom right hand there is a deep blue lagoon with water that flows down towards the bottom left-hand corner alongside a small island of green grasses. The lagoon is rimmed on the shoreline by flowering grasses and a pebbled beach of coloured pink sand. A green plant situated on the far left of the artwork, growing out of the sand, stretches up to the top left corner with its vines reaching out towards the left and the right.
Behind the plant, moving from left to right, is a ridgeline of a dark maroon hillside and above this a purple sky. The entire scene is alive with birdlife. Brolgas and wetland birds are found at rest in the lagoon and on the pink pebbled beach whilst the sky is filled with birds in flight, magpie geese with their wings outstretched or angling down dive towards the lagoon in different directions and to the beach below. The landscape teems with life and a vibrancy unique to the Far North’s wet season when birdlife breed and new growth and fresh water return to the lagoons and waterways.
Gertie Deeral is a respected leader and elder from the Dingaal Warra clan, serving as a traditional owner of the lands surrounding Lizard Island. Born in Woorabinda in 1944, she and her family were interned there during World War II. After the war ended, Gertie and her family returned to Hope Vale when she was a young girl. Her totems, representing significant aspects of her identity, are Walmbaar (Stingray) from her mother’s side and Bunyja (Night Owl) from her father’s side. Although Gertie only recently began painting, she is now a member of the Gamba Gamba group (senior women) at the Hope Vale Arts and Culture Centre. Her paintings explore themes of Woorabinda settlement history, and of the Hope Vale Mission.