The Legend of Winija
$4,000

The word Winija means both whirlwind and women. The aboriginal women have a story about a whirlwind that they told years ago. The Legend has it that a whirlwind had taken a small child. Two women then planned to trap the whirlwind to teach it a lesson. To trap it they put a small circle of sticks in the ground and then placed bushes round outside. They then sat and waited for the bushes to dry out.

The whirlwind came to the area and rushed about, not taking any notice of the circle of sticks, and he whirled right into the trap the women had built. Once he was caught, the women told the whirlwind that they would not let him out until he told them where the child was. The whirlwind agreed to go and get the child if he was let out. When he returned with the child the women then told him that if he took the child again they would trap him and then never let him out. This annoyed the whirlwind and caused him to rush about scattering sticks and dust. Whirlwinds have been doing this ever since.

Acrylic on Canvas 122cm H x 88cm W; or 48" H x 34.5" W
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The fish represent the food source for the Aboriginal people who live in this area by the river. The Gum Trees provided wood for their boats. Grubs that lived in the bark of these trees provided a further food source which the women of the tribe gathered and cooked. The style of this painting show the unusual detail found in fine Australian aboriginal paintings.

This work is Acrylic on Canvas and is 51" X 31"
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The Legend of the Three Sisters
$4,000

Once there was an old man and his wife who lived in the Blue Mountains near where the town of KATOOMBA is now. They had three daughters. On the birth of the third daughter the mother died in childbirth, leaving the daughters for the father to raise. The mother was turned into a small brown bird.

The father taught his daughters right from wrong and passed on legends, especially women stories. One of the stories was about the Bunyip (an evil spirit) who lived in the rocks, where he had been asleep for many years. The father told the girls that they weren't to throw rocks down the mountain where streams and waterfalls run, because that would awaken the Bunyip and he would be very angry.

One day the father said, he was going hunting and he asked the eldest daughter to mind the two sisters and not go near edge of the rocks and espeially not throw stones down. The father was gone for two days.

On the way back he heard a loud rumbling noise and knew immediately that it was the Bunyip who had been awakened. Now the father always carried a long stick and a bone of his wife, which he believed had magical power.

As he was coming up to the mountain, to see if his daughters were all right, he dropped the bone. His body became weak and frail, so he called to the Dynanagals (little black spirits) for help. Dynanagals reward you when you are good and take away things when you are bad.

The father knew the daughters had woken the Bunyip. He asked the Dynanagal for help to save his daughters. The Dynanagals said, "If you can get to the top of the hill by the third sunrise I will save them; otherwise I will turn them into rock."

The father, being weak and old, struggled to get to the top of the hill by the third day, but he fell asleep. He woke up to see the sun peering through three pointed rocks and he knew his daughters had been turned to rock. Then the old man called the Dynangals again for help and said to them, "When I die, may I stay with my wife and daughters?" The Dynangals said, "Yes, your spirit will become the most beautiful bird who lives in these mountains, with the blue from the sky and the green from the trees. You were always a good husband and father." The father's spirit is the Lyrebird.

Acrylic on Canvas 88cm H x 129cm W; or 34.5" H x 51" W
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