Angelina Guluwulla Karadada Boona
Kalumburu, WA
The enigmatic Wandjina spirit found as rock art throughout the Northern Kimberley is for the Worrorra people evidence of their Ancestor's existence. The Wandjina is a Creator Spirit associated with powerful wet season storms. For Angelina Guluwulla Karadada Boona, the Wandjina emerges from ephemeral clouds to bring rain and abundance before turning into rock art. Using traditional mediums of locally foraged white ochre mixed with gum sap, her raindrop marks surrounding the Wandjina reveal an emerging power.
About the Artist
Angelina Guluwulla Karadada Boona was born in Kalumburu and has lived there all her life. Her mother is the important senior artist Lily Karadada, and her father is Jack Karadada who was a medicine man and made didgeridoos and spears for hunting.
�My mum used to paint on bark, bush baskets and numarrga (bush cradle). I learnt two languages from my parents, plus other languages in my life.�
In Angelina's recent series Wandjina Emerging, the artist explores traditional painting media of white ochre, both saltwater and freshwater, and natural white gum resin, all of which she collects herself. Although laborious and strenuous, the artist considers these processes important for connecting to her Ancestors as she creates her luminous pale pink and chalky white Wandjina paintings.
Not only is Angelina an excellent painter, she is employed as a Senior Arts Worker at Kira Kiro Artists. She graduated from the ANKA Arts Worker Foundation Training Program and the National Gallery of Australia Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program in 2019.
