Kampagee (2010) by Margaret Baragurra 76x105cm

Margaret Baragurra was born in Kalpirti in the Great Sandy Desert region of Western Australia, where she spent her early years. A sustained drought in the early 1970's saw her people walk out of their traditional country and settled in the coastal town of Bidyadanga (formerly known as Le Grange Mission) on the Kimberley coast (some 250 km south of Broome).

It was here in Bidyadanga in 2003 that Margaret started painting. Her work was to combine the traditional designs from the Great Sandy Desert with the vibrant colours of the saltwater landscape of the Kimberley. Her work achieved critical acclaim as she painted country, capturing not only her memories of the desert but to her home on the Kimberley coast.

Using the same colour palatte in another work of the same name, this painting is about her country Kampagee...

My country Kampagee, we been walking around, I been born there. I am little one walking around Nanarra. Lots of jila, warla (mud flood). Old people country blood country, sad one you know. He been lost there my uncle everyone been lost there my grandfather too.