Fences: Wendy Hubert

“I was born on my Country and remember. I know how hard it was for my people. How they kept trying to care for our Country according to our Law. Trying to keep our Law and Country strong.

These things happened in my lifetime.

I grew up on West Pilbara Country, our Ngurra. A station child. When I paint, I remember station life. For my family in 1954, when I was born, people were still working on stations. One station or another. But I never knew when my mother died. I was very young. I wasn’t there. It is hard to remember when. I know that I got sick -pneumonia and maybe diphtheria. I got taken away to Onslow Hospital. I think they kept me there a long time. I never saw my mother again. For a long time, I didn’t understand anything. When I came home, I remember my father took my brothers to work on another station, and I lived with my gantharri on different stations. She was blind and I was her helper.

In the 1950s, station workers lived in humpies and tin sheds. Some camped in bough shelters. Walked or traveled on horse and carts from place to place, and in old cars like Zephyrs and Dodges that some got from station bosses, sometimes instead of wages. I remember I travelled sometimes to see other family in the off-season or school holidays. Listened when they told all the stories about the past, how to do things right way. Keep the Law. Our Law. Live yarra, right way. Skin group way. Galharra we call it doing our responsibilities, looking after everyone, looking after Country. They showed me, And I learned.

Being on my Country makes me strong, and painting my Ngurra keeps me strong. Traveling with our Juluwarlu Art Group when we camp on our Country all together, painting our cultural stories, sharing our knowledge with our young people, reminds me that we are all happiest on our Pilbara Country. Painting my Ngurra, I paint my Yindjibarndi Country and my Gurruma Country: both of my grandfathers’ Ngurra. Old People, they all worked hard. I’ve got to work hard too. My Grandfather would be happy for me; happy to see me painting the colours of his Country.”

~ Wendy Hubert 2024