1. BIDYADANGA ARTISTS
P.O Box 634, Broome WA 6725
Tel: +61 8 91924962
Fax: +61 8 91924988
It all started with a can of soft drink
“We have been printing, painting, making ceramic bowls and tiles, making mosaics,
weaving and all sorts. This is all part of the Contemporary Arts and Crafts course we
signed up with partnership between TAFE and Kularri Regional CDEP Incorporation
(KRCI) for the past 5 years. Throughout these years, we have gained Certificate 1, II
and III and we are now enrolled in Certificate III in Arts Administration. When we
completed Cert III in Visual Arts, we thought, what is the outcome of these training
and how can we establish ourselves like the other working artists in other well-known
and established art centres.
First and foremost, we need to and have the desire to be independent. We have no
funding (yet) or any source of other income to help establish ourselves. So, we
decided to sell cool drinks!
It was during the 2009 wet season and a 150m walk to the shop from the women’s
centre means walking under the hot sun to the shop to get drinks. We don’t like
walking in hot sun. We decided all artists should put in $10 to help buy cartons of
water and soft drinks and sell them at the same price, as they would cost at the shop.
We were very happy when we sold our first 50 drinks! Slowly we managed to raise
$300 within a month. This enabled us to buy some professional artist materials like
canvases, silk scarves, silk, brushes and acrylic paints.
The aim is to paint from our heart and re-tell stories told by the old people. We were
motivated and wanted to make this work. We call ourselves the Bidyadanga
Community Artists as most of us are born and bred in this country. But some were
taken away from families by missionaries to Bidyadanga to learn Kartiya (non-
Aboriginal) way of living. But we also have our nanna and grands from desert. They
came out between 30- 40 years ago. Not long time.
When we sold our first paintings, we couldn’t believe how satisfying it is to know that
someone out there value our effort and our stories. We painted more and more and
soon we were producing Aboriginal artworks on silk scarves, acrylic paintings on
papers and canvases. But we needed people to know we are in here working.
Without any funding or more monies left for a proper sign, we decided to recycle an
old marine ply board as our sign out on the road to let people know we welcome
them to view our works.
October 2009: Kids from the community
working together on our temporary art
centre signage.
Together, with the support of the
community workers, Mick has helped us
erect the temporary signage on the
side of the highway in October 2009.

2. BIDYADANGA ARTISTS
P.O Box 634, Broome WA 6725
Tel: +61 8 91924962
Fax: +61 8 91924988
The signage did us mob good! People know we are here and they come to see us
paint. We tell them how we started. We also ask them to help buy more cool drinks
from us so that we can buy more art stuff.
We now get passing tourists and other people from town to come visit us. It must be
by word of mouth because we don’t have monies to do flyers, brochures or even put
an advertisement on paper. But we are happy that people want to know more
about us. Since then, we entered in many art shows and competitions. One of our
artists even won the Best Aboriginal artwork in 2010 at the Shinju Art Prize! Then again
2011 and again in 2012! Our artists did really well. Three years in a row and more to
come. We now have artworks all around the world because tourists from overseas
buy them.
In March 2010, a man came to visit us. He heard about us from our art lecturer, Jacky
Cheng from Kimberley Training Institute. She sent many emails out to these big
galleries to see whether we get a chance to exhibit. But only one came back. He is
from the famous gallery call Japingka Indigenous Fine Art Gallery in Fremantle, Perth.
He was very excited to see so many of our new works especially our silks. Then he
said, he wants to help us tell other people about us by giving us an exhibition in Perth.
But we have to work. We have to sell more drinks to buy more materials for this
exhibition. We can do this.
We had our first gallery exhibition in
Fremantle in Nov 2010. Our families
and kids are very proud of us.
So, instead of just selling drinks, we
have to help our Art Centre grow.
Every time we sell an artwork, we
give back the Art Centre 25% to
buy more quality and professional
materials because we want people
who buy our work to have good
work. We then keep 75% to buy
mayi (food) or fishing gear for our
family members so that they can
go catch fish for tea.
Above: November 2010: The kartiya David Wroth
who showed our work in his gallery. Nancy Bangu
was giving a speech about our art centre. But the
painting in the back is not ours. It belongs to
another community.
Above: Noreen Bangu with some of our silks
scarves artwork at the exhibition.

3. BIDYADANGA ARTISTS
P.O Box 634, Broome WA 6725
Tel: +61 8 91924962
Fax: +61 8 91924988
The Art Centre is almost four years old in October but we still don’t have a building of
our own. We borrowed Women’s Centre to paint. No more in the heat and paint
dries quickly. Now we have chairs, tables and wall to hang our artworks. We will keep
painting and making beautiful works. We will also keep selling drinks. We want to tell
you this because we want to be better for our next generation so that they can
follow what we do. We think we do good. We think we can give our people jobs and
maybe they can help us stretch canvasses. Thank you for reading our story so far.“
Some of the artists with their artworks in
Bidyadanga between 2006 and 2010
Left: Marilyn Bullen
Middle: Nancy Bangu
Right: Bibianna Tumbler
Above: Our new temporary art centre until we get a building of our own. We moved
in in March 2011. The community is proud of our achievements. The workers painted
the room for us and donated new tables to us.

4. BIDYADANGA ARTISTS
P.O Box 634, Broome WA 6725
Tel: +61 8 91924962
Fax: +61 8 91924988
Left: Our new temporary art
centre until we get a building of
our own. We only moved in in
March 2011.
Left: Natalie Hunter with some of
our artwork at the Revealed 2011
Marketplace/exhibition at Gallery
Central.
Right: Maria Hunter’s artwork titled ‘Lirringkirn’
at the Revealed Exhibition at Gallery Central
2013. It also won the Shinju Art Award for best
Aboriginal Art category in 2012 and now sold
on the opening night of the Revealed
exhibition.
SHARE OUR STORIES
Text by various Bidyadanga Community Artists in their own words. Refined for easy reading by Natalie
Hunter – artists and arts administrator of the art centre.