Awelye Ena-nakamarra-gibson-tag an Aboriginal boarding college in

an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin

commonly known as Desert Fuchsia

Her painting 'The Escape' done as part of a series of paintings relating to massacre stories by Jirrawun artists intended to be shown together as "Blood on the Spinifex" was exhibited at the Seventeenth National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition in 2000 and was highly commended

I feel proud and closer to my culture when I paint my country

Awelye Ena-nakamarra-gibson-tag an Aboriginal boarding college inGalyas work is distinctive and highly individual. Her early paintings, dating from around 2004, drew on Portulaca oleraceaknown as munyerooa grass once abundant in the Utopia region and an important food source for generations. Its tiny black seed became central to her imagery, with Galya adopting its half circle form as a dominant motif in her paintings. Over fifty years of cattle grazing greatly reduced the abundance of this grass. In her paintings,