Lucky Kngwarreye Morton
BIOGRAPHY
We were living bush at Ngkwarlananim. Everyone’s shifted away now. No one’s there at that camp. It’s finished. We were walking around. No car. Walking to Amaroo with swags. I was carrying the billy can when I was a young girl.
Women’s dreaming is to dig for tyape and yerrampe. We’ve dug them for a long time. Always. Daughters and granddaughters are hunting them too. They know. We can sing that kere. We know how to find them. Looking around for signs. Our old people taught us how to look properly and with open eyes. Long time ago at 3 Bores we started the batik. Silk. Batik. I like it. Put them in the water. Put in yellow and another one, maybe green. Use wax. Use the chanting. Hard one. We had to wash them, boil them, put them in the bucket. Not easy. We been working hard for batik. We worked at Ngkwarlananim making them up there too. The first ones. All over there in our country. The whole lot of us together. We did batik with Lily, Janice, Katie my mother, and her mother too. They put them all in that paper. That book. My mother’s batik book.
When we finished with silk we started with canvas. All day canvas, canvas, canvas. Same story. Ilyarnayt all day. Big mob this growing in Ngkwarlananim. We’re still painting that story.
Women’s dreaming is to dig for tyape and yerrampe. We’ve dug them for a long time. Always. Daughters and granddaughters are hunting them too. They know. We can sing that kere. We know how to find them. Looking around for signs. Our old people taught us how to look properly and with open eyes. Long time ago at 3 Bores we started the batik. Silk. Batik. I like it. Put them in the water. Put in yellow and another one, maybe green. Use wax. Use the chanting. Hard one. We had to wash them, boil them, put them in the bucket. Not easy. We been working hard for batik. We worked at Ngkwarlananim making them up there too. The first ones. All over there in our country. The whole lot of us together. We did batik with Lily, Janice, Katie my mother, and her mother too. They put them all in that paper. That book. My mother’s batik book.
When we finished with silk we started with canvas. All day canvas, canvas, canvas. Same story. Ilyarnayt all day. Big mob this growing in Ngkwarlananim. We’re still painting that story.
Awards
1991, Selected Entrant for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin.
Group Exhibitions
2026, June, Ilyarnayt, Art Leven, Sydney NSW
2025, June, We Call it Urapuntja, JGM Gallery, London
2005, January, Artists of Utopia: Then and Now, Outback Alive, Canberra.
2005, January, Small Wonders, Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs.
2005, January, Desert Hues, The Gallery, Canberra.
2004, January, Last of the 20th Century, Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs.
2004, January, Evolution of Utopia, Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs.
2003, January, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
2002, January, Queensland Museum of NAIDOC, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery, Duaringa Shire Gallery, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Noosa Regional Gallery & Cooloola Shire Public Gallery.
1999, January, International Tour, Art Direct Gallery, Litsey & Kearney.
1998, January, Paintings from Utopia and Balgo Hills, Aboriginal Art Galerie Behr, Speyer, Germany. 1998, January, Art Gallery Culture Store, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
1998, January, Exhibition in Art Centre, Meerzigt, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands.
1998, January, Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy, Vlaams, Brussels, Belgium.
1991, January, Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1991, January, 8th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1990, January, Views, Visions, Influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
1989, January, Utopia Women’s Paintings: The First Works on Canvas. A Summer Project, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney.
1989, January, Utopia: A Picture Story, Tandanya Cultural Institute, Adelaide, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick.
Collections
Artbank
The Holmes á Court Collection
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art Powerhouse Museum
National Gallery of Australia
The Holmes á Court Collection
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art Powerhouse Museum
National Gallery of Australia
