Gija Goowoolem Doo Minybernem – Gija trees and grasses
Gija goowoolem doo minybernem – Gija trees and grasses is both a work of art and an extraordinary ethnobotanical achievement. At its heart are 72 stunning paintings by award-winning artist Birrmarriya Shirley Purdie which feature the significant flora found in Gija Country in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. The paintings are accompanied by Birrmarriya’s descriptions of each plant’s traditional properties and uses – for food, medicine and object making – as well as their place in Gija culture and history.
The result is a rich botanical encyclopaedia informed by Ngarranggarni – ‘the Dreamtime’ or ‘creation time’ – which both preserves and shares traditional knowledge, now and into the future. Birrmarriya and co-author, linguist, artist and gardener Frances Kofod, share a love for Gija Country and its flora. They collaborated over many years to create this richly layered book which includes stories in both Gija and English, new maps of Gija Country and useful appendices containing plant descriptions, species names and photographs. Birrmarriya Shirley Purdie won the Blake Prize in 2007. The paintings in this book are part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Birrmarriya Shirley Purdie is a Gija woman of Nangari skin who was born in 1947 at Gilban (Mabel Downs Station) in the East Kimblerley region of Western Australia. As a respected community elder and as part of her cultural responsibilities, Birrmarriya passes on her encyclopaedic knowledge of Gija language, cultural practices, the intrinsic ecological relationships of country, ethnobotanics, and flora and fauna identification with family, schools, seed collectors, scientists, environmentalists, miners, pastoralists and ranger groups. Birrmarriya has been painting since the early 1990s. She was awarded the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2007 and her work is held in major national collections including at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Portrait Gallery.
Frances Kofod was born in Sydney in 1948 and grew up there and in Armidale in northern New South Wales. In 1978, she completed her Master of Arts thesis on the Miriwoong language. Frances first met Birrmarrya Shirley Purdie in 1987 when working as a linguist in the Gija language program at Ngalangangpum School at Warrmarn. Frances’s first recordings of Birrmarriya relating the stories of her paintings date from this time. From the late 1980s to the present, Frances continues to work on many language projects involving Miriwoong, Gija and Gajirrabeng languages, and was the main compiler of the Gija Dictionary (ASP, 2022).
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