Mavis Ngallametta lived a traditional life with her family until she was five years old, when they were removed to a Presbyterian mission at Aurukun, near the northernmost tip of Queensland, in the western Cape York Peninsula region. While she wouldn’t return to many of the landscapes of her childhood until later in life, the artist held these memories dear and later immortalised them in paint. In the bottom third, for instance, we can see the ocean and shoreline, which shifts towards an expansive aerial perspective – one in which the meandering white lines of the many streams drain from inland reservoirs around Aurukun and into the sea. 

When Ngallametta was a child,she was taught to weave, using naturally dyed pandanus, along with ghost nets and other discarded marine debris that commonly washes ashore; not until she was 64 did the artist pick up her first paintbrush. Quickly graduating from small canvases and synthetic paints, she began to experiment with ochre and natural pigments over a rich synthetic ultramarine surface, interweaving complex patterns at a grand scale.

Mavis Ngallametta’s landscapes are vibrant and celebratory. They share fragmentary vignettes of her life in and around her home. Her expertise as a master weaver is exemplified here through the sophisticated patterns, bands, dots and unique perspectives she has threaded together.