Curatorial+Co. presents The Colour of Country – a collaborative offsite exhibition in our Woolloomooloo gallery with the National Indigenous Art Fair (NIAF), co-curated by Dunghutti/Gomeroi curator Nioka Lowe-Brennan, from 2–19 July 2025.

“Ngilipitji is my Country, that’s where I grew up. From Ngilipitji we went to Walker River, walking on foot. My language is Yolngu Matha. My clan is Wagilak on my father’s side, Ritharrngu on my mother’s side. My totems are wild honey and black crow.”

Joy Wilfred is a Ritharrngu artist who lives and works with her sisters and niece in Numbulwar. Joy’s artistic practice is heavily influenced by her grandmother, who took her out bush to harvest and peel pandanus for wulbung (basket) weaving, and to dig and prepare dye materials to colour the pandanus. Joy is renowned for her tireless work ethic, weaving at all hours of the day and through the night.

Primarily using traditional pandanus techniques for her wulbung (baskets), epic pandanus mats and dilly bags (which Joy remembers her family using to hold wild honey), Joy is also known to experiment with ghost nets and shade cloth for another form of bag known as yir, using acrylics to paint culturally significant designs.

“Joy’s painting is a powerful celebration of Numbulwar – its land, its sea, and its spirit. The car bonnet pulses with colour and energy, mapping a landscape both real and remembered. Myniarr (wattleseed trees) and Maguj (pandanus) rise boldly at the centre, anchoring the scene in deep ancestral knowledge. The sea shimmers with life – fish and turtles weave through water lilies, as mangroves cradle the shoreline. The bush bursts with wildflowers, their colours shifting like stories carried on the wind. Sand dunes roll gently, and in the stillness of the billabong, brolgas dance – a symbol of Joy’s totem and soul. Woven through the painting are baskets and dilly bags, sacred forms that speak to Joy’s mastery as a weaver. These are her most treasured elements – threads of identity, memory, and deep belonging. Joy creates, but she also reinvents and repurposes objects like this car bonnet. Like many in her family, she finds dead objects in the bush, the dump and on the beach, and reuses them to turn them into beautiful works of art.”

This work appears courtesy of Numbulwar Numburindi Arts.