Gnardangardi

A collaborated Ode to the Kimberley Motherland,

Painted by Sabrina Ronzitti and Indigenous Artist Lili Pich.

Materials: Acrylic on Canvas with Earth.

Size: 1.2m by 2.2m 

An art piece created on country, for country. Carrying a significant message of activism and protection for the Kimberleys against Fracking. 

Symbols and representations of the painting:

• Snake - creation, water and life giving spirit. 
• Wandjinas represetning the sea and land, water and rain, creation beings. 
• Circles - Sacred water holes, places of healing and gathering.
• Handprints - By the mob we met along the way.

Before we share our journey with you, we wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians, the Aboriginal peoples of all the Lands we traveled through in Northern Kimberley. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise their continuing connection to Land, Waters, Sky and Spirit and wish to remind you that sovereignty never ceded, and everywhere the light touches is Aboriginal Land.

Special shout out to Uncle Ronnie, Gooniyandi Elder and protector and his family in Mimbi Caves. We also want to thank Uncle Terry of Wunambal Gaambal Country for showing us the Uunguu, Wanjina Wunggurr sacred sites. We give thanks to you all for sharing your knowledge, love, stories, campfire feeds and songs with us. Thank you for blessing our piece with your handprints. Without you mob we wouldn't have learnt many things but most importantly about how important it is to protect your culture and pass it on. We wouldn't have heard our painting's name (Ngadengadi), and wouldn’t have found more mob to call our own. Thank you for your time, great yarns, laughs and teachings. We’ll be back to see yous for sure. Shout out to Nuriah Jedai from Mangala Martu Buru and the whole Jedai family - our sister you inspire thousands every year with your powerful voice. Thank you for being a leader, way-maker and warrior for your country. Thank you to our beloved Stewy for allowing us to use your truck to take this road trip. We love you darling, thank you for trusting us with your girl and making sure we were safe. 

Gnardangari - pronounced na-den-ga-dee. A collaborated ode to the Kimberley Motherland. A painting and song carrying a significant message of anti-fracking activism and a call for protection of the beautiful wild Kimberleys in Northern Western Australia. This is the hilarious and heartbreaking true story of two soul sisters Sabrina Ronzitti and Lili Pich, as they embarked upon a “Kimberley Art Vision Quest'' along the iconic and notorious Gibb-River Road. For 14 days they drove deep into the raw, remote reaches of the Northern Kimberley and all they had was some basic supplies, some paints, just enough money for fuel and no plan whatsoever. For the first 3 days they fasted to be open to receiving messages, energy and all the subtle connections of Spirits of the Land, and over the 14 days they captured not only a story, but a plea, a message of help to protect the Kimberley and her waters from the serious proposed fracking threats. The sisters yarned with Traditional Custodians along their travels, camped by waterholes and rivers in Crocodile Country, and painted for approximately 8-9 hours a day in the intense heat and red dust.

Sabrina: Ngadengadi’s name was spoken to us by the elder of Gooniyandi country, uncle Ronnie. When he saw what we were creating, he gave us the name. We were standing on sacred ground, towering behind us 350 million year old ancient caves and the birthing place for women. Me and Lili were setting off when Uncle came charging down from camp with his big cup of coffee in a good ol metal billy mug yelling out

“I came to say goodbye.”

We rolled out the canvas and showed him what we had started painting the night before. It was was a big giant white snake with three circles inside her - He looked at it and said this is Gnardangardi, then explained that this is the word of the creation snake.

He told us the story of “way back in the creation” and felt honoured that we were going to such lengths to spread the word about Fracking threats in the Kimberley. He blessed us by asking if he could put his handprint on the painting “in his words he said he wants to brand it haha!” It was a special moment and a day that me and Lili will never forget. That's what happens out there, the connections you make with people and country are for life and they are almost instantaneous. 

In a way Gnardangardi without realising was already guiding us because from the moment we started painting her, we knew nothing about her story. We didn’t know the dreamtime/creation stories of this land and yet the very thing we created was that story. 

Yet as we were learning about her from the mob from stop to stop we met the understanding that we have become channels for her voice as she saw in us that we were there to help in any way we could. Gnardangardi's story is a beautiful one. She carved her way through the earth, traveling on her own journey in the darkness to bring about life as we see & experience it today. 

Traveling ourselves through the Kimberley on our own creation journey, it was as though we were following the path of the great creation snake Ngadengadi and the more we ventured into the red earth countryside the louder and clearer her presence became. Ngadengadi is real, her stories are still spoken and shared even between the mobs that are thousands of kilometres apart.

The land beams with her life, you see it in the waters that quench the dry lands. Her voice came to us when we would sing, she would sing through us. Gnardangardi presented herself to us in the waters, or nearby the waters mostly. On this quest, we wanted to highlight the beauty and love of the country we have in our backyard. We wanted to showcase the culture and indigenous peoples' way of life so that hopefully more of us would understand why it is so important to save it with every fighting tactic that we can possibly think of. This painting is the timestamp of 2221km, many mobs, spirits of the land & over 30 hours driving later (1160km of this was the Gibb river) 

Half of the Proceeds go to supporting Anti Fracking in the Kimbereley.