Nancy Yukuwal McDinny b. 1958

Nancy McDinny was born in 1958 among the mangroves near Milrila on Fetrel Island, between Manangoora Station and Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Her birth name is Yukuwal and her skin name is Nangalama and she is Mambaliya- Wawukarriya.   "My clan is Mambaliya and my dreaming is Kurlyukurlyu, Brolga and my country is Wubunjawa near Marrinybul. I am Garrwa from my father’s side and Yanyuwa from my mother’s side. I want to tell the stories as it's been taught to me from my father. Where we are really from and to protect the country. I also want to tell the history story. "Nancy paints about the rich traditional life that she, her parents and grandparents lived. This includes hunting, harvesting bush tucker and travelling.  Her artwork also recounts her family’s direct experiences of European settlement in the Gulf region, and the ongoing issues confronting the community today including mines impacting on the natural environment and people’s way of life.  Nancy sings the songs of the old people Warlaba and teaches them, passing on the responsibility of travelling on country. Songs keep the language and land strong. The animals and bush tucker and all we do and drink like fresh water.  "Every one of the songs is very special to me because it’s got the meaning of the country and animals that we are related to. In my heart I really love it. We are connected to all the land: this is how it's important to us. The story has come from the song line: the story goes with the country, lets you know about the country and what people were doing before. When we gone, our great-great grandchildren behind us will be happy that the song is still here."  

Statement
Some of Nancy's stories about her paintings:

"Murkularrangu - Robinson River it’s called in English. This is the old name for the whole area including the old station around Robinson. Very high gorge and up the river all the way. Halfway only with old motorcar, otherwise pack horse and 4 wheel drive motorcar. Can’t ride far only long gorge up there. Long way over the hill/ valley to get there. Pandanus billabong. Young when I lived there had my first children grow up here. My grandfather is here ...They buried my grandfather 9 mile up from Robinson.” Nancy Mc Dinny

"They flew over this country where they caught Murdering Tommy. In Grey Horse pocket they caught him. That freedom fighter Nancy's grandfather called Mayawagu. His bush name. His own brother traded him.  His name was Wearyn George, and they did this cause they were sick of fighting the police. They wanted to stop. “Stewart Hoosan

They called my great grandfather Murdering Tommy, but his real name was Mayawagu. Those police liked to call him names. Mayawagu was a Garrwa man. He was a strong man who stood up for his country.
The whites came through our country first with cattle and then police started coming to pick up the people. Then they came for mining. That first mine called Redbank that started up in 1916.
This painting is about the time the police came to arrest Mayawagu. Those Aboriginal trackers brought them to where his son, my grandfather, was standing with fifty warriors. Those policemen said, “Tell your father that we will give you tobacco if he will talk with us”. But Mayawagu didn’t want to. So they shot my grandfather in the shoulder and they grabbed him. He had a nulla (a fighting stick) buried under the ground and he fiicked that fighting stick at them. He didn’t want them digging up the ground, messing up the land. He was fighting with those military police for 35 years. They took him to Darwin. I heard he ended up over in Yarrabah, in Queensland.

Mardarini Beach:
Mardirini beach, near the Robinson River Mouth down from Greenbank Station, Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, Australia. It is the place where turtles come and lay their eggs and once hatched, they crawl towards the water and swim out. The little creek is called Liwindindila, the lagoon on the right side never dries up so it always has water. McDinny's grandmother and grandfather always got water from this lagoon.