Station Days, Ration Days : Town Camp Now: New works from Alice Springs Town Camps
Past exhibition
Doris Thomas Australian, Luritja, b. 1948
Family Camp, Deep Well Station, 2019
Acrylic on linen
68 x 68 cm
841166
This painting is about when I was born. I was born in the creekbed on Deep Well Station, where my mother worked. They lived in this camp, along with other...
This painting is about when I was born. I was born in the creekbed on Deep Well Station, where my mother worked. They lived in this camp, along with other family, friends. My grandmother is holding me. I just been born. Mum brought this white lady to see me. My stepfather is there wearing the lavender shirt and cowboy hat. All the family is around us - Tjitji [kids] and papa [camp dogs]. We lived in humpies - no power, no water. We used 44 gallon drums for rubbish [painted beside each humpy]. We stored water from the well [buckets hanging in the lower left of painting]. This is where my family lived when I was born. I've got a birth mark on my face representing the rocky outcrop behind camp. It's a part of the Iterrkewarre Tjukurrpa that ends up down at Chambers Pillar. The young girls all camped here before Iterrkewarre came upon them. Later we moved to the Aboriginal Camp at Maryvale Station. That camp became Titjikala Community. Irritja in the air here. Irritja [Wedge Tailed Eagle] Tjukurrpa belongs here and as a part of Titjikala too. The white birds belong in the swamp near to this camp. They belong here too.