"Ngak Yangka" 2021 

Heather Koowootha  

Wik-Mungkan/Kugu and Yidinji/Djabugay/Gunggandji peoples. Born 1966, Yarrabah. Lives and works Gimuy (Cairns), Queensland. 

 

"Ngak Yangka" 2021 

acrylic paint, binder medium and ochre on linen 

 

Courtesy of the artist and NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Gimuy (Cairns). 

 

 

Heather Koowootha belongs to the Wik-Mungkan people from her father’s side, Kugu people from her paternal grandmother, and Yidinji/Djabugay/Gunggandji people from her mother’s side. As a visual storyteller, Heather documents and shares cultural knowledge taught by her family and learnt from her childhood experiences living in Aurukun and other top-end communities, Far North Queensland. Ngak Yangka carries the responsibilities and relationships that the artist holds to the places of her cultural lineage.  

 

Using rich natural pigments collected on Country, Koowootha paints a network of waterholes, emerging from deep aquifer systems that lie underneath ancient ground and connect with an interrelated web of life and kinship relations. In sharing part of a matrilineal story, Koowootha translates cultural lore/laws and practices that have respected and protected spiritually, culturally and environmentally significant water sites. As Koowootha states:  

 

"Ngak Yangka is a sacred waterhole south of the Kendall River near Pormpuraaw. The water has healing properties and is a very important place for us Traditional Owners as it was for our Ancestors. This is my Grandmother’s Country and it is very sacred. You can’t go there. It’s forbidden for outsiders to visit. My family shared this story with me. This is a women’s story. The waterholes are all there and the big waterhole is our mother. The upside-down trees beside the waterholes cannot be touched otherwise a bad storm will come and cause big problems."