Mabel Juli is well-versed in the law and culture of her people, which she upholds through ceremonial singing and dancing. This knowledge is evident in her paintings, which allude to her rich experience of the sparse desert environment around Darragyn, south of Warmun. Juli paints with natural pigments that she sources locally, applying up to six layers to capture the character of the Kimberley landscape.

This painting tells of an old woman searching for her lost dog, which she eventually discovers with a kangaroo inside a water-filled cave. Juli’s heavy black charcoal marks record the woman’s efforts to find her dog by burning the surrounding grass. The trio of woman, dog and kangaroo can be seen today as a group of stone formations in Darragyn Country.