Lily Karadada (or Karedada)

Age : 77 years approx. Language : Tjarintjin / Woonambal Sub Section : Mindundel

Lily was born in her father’s country in the land of the Pitjarintjin people around the Prince Regent River, on the Mitchell Plateau, in Western Australia’s far north, where images of the Wandjina and Bradshaw figures are found in many of the caves. During the war, teenaged Lily and husband Jack, made the long walk north to Kalumburu, where they lived in a cave in the adjacent hills for many months, waiting out the Japanese bombing raids on the mission, before moving in.

Specialising in painting the Wandjina, Lily usually depicts the icon in a veil of dots representing the rain generated by the spirit, and the blood/water bond between man and nature.

Lily’s bush-name is Mindundel, meaning ‘bubbles‘, named at birth by her father, because she was born near a bubbling spring.

Lily has spent her life in Kalumburu with Jack. Somewhere between painting & carving she dotes on her many ‘grannies‘, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

Medium: Paintings, natural ochres and bush gum fixative on canvas, bark, didgeridu,coolaman, bark bush-buckets, (garagi) carvings on slate rock, tapping sticks.  

Subjects/Themes: Lily almost exclusively portrays the Wandjina figure from a frontal aspect. The icon is usually seen in company of a range of animals and / or views of country. 

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