Artist: Edna Iles
Area: Minyerri, NT
Language: Alawa

I was born on the old Roper Highway about 10 kilometres East of Mataranka in 1960, the elderly lady who delivered me has long passed away.

She travelled on with my parents to the Katherine hospital after I was born. My father was hoping to get his wife into the Katherine Hospital so that she could give birth to their third child.

My homeland is Minyerri (Hodgson Downs Community) which is approximately 110 kilometers down the Roper Highway then we turn off the very narrow sealed road approximately 40/45 kilometres onto a very rough dirt road.

My name (Edna) was given to me by another old lady at the old Mataranka Store which is 106 Kilometres South of Katherine. My people are the Alawa people of Minyerri, Ngukurr and other smaller communities including Mataranka and Jilkminggan. 

I have painted for the last ten years but it’s only in the recent months (2008) that I have had the passion to paint with more vibrant colours using Matisse, Atelier and occasionally Jo Sonja’s  which are quality paints. My paintings are usually about water holes, hunting and gathering bush tucker, water lilies, turtles, fish, goanna’s etc.

My homeland has water scattered throughout the land including fresh water springs that seep-out of the rocky hill faces. The stories I use in my paintings are stories from my mother now deceased. I remember going hunting with her and other relatives when I was very young learning about bush tucker and bush medicine, finding turtles in the mud and gathering bush berries plums, potatoes and onions. I will never forget the lessons my elders taught me about living and surviving in the bush.

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