Judy Greenie

Judy was born at Utopia Homestead when her father was working at Woodgreen Station. She lived traditionally with her mother and older sisters Maureen, Jedda and Jennifer in the bush near Three Bores. On holidays and weekends the family would travel to visit their grandfather, Peter Purvis, at Woodgreen Station. “My father and grandfather used to pick us up in the big truck and took us to the station. They been telling stories, ‘this kangaroo is your grandfather’s dreaming’ they tell us everything about our country. We go hunting and sit down in the tin station house for a long time.” “When we was little ones, we been get pencil yams near Atneltyey on the side of the road.”

When Judy’s daughter was young she joined the batik program at Utopia Homestead. “I was putting lots of colours, yellow, red, purple, green, mixing up. Sometimes I made yellow, white and red for pencil yam colours. It was really hard to boil that silk and cotton ones. I was doing tie dye too, putting sticks or rocks or marbles inside and colours too.”

Judy was involved in exhibitions for the Batik program and moved to canvas painting in the 1990’s, she has painted for many years. She remembers “sitting down and helping my grandmother, Emily Kame Knywarreye, with mixing up painting, brushes, kwatya (water) and sometimes cup of tea. She been telling me ‘when I pass away you can do them like that this painting’.” Judy is experimenting with a new style of painting, reminiscent of the grandmother, painting this way makes her feel closer to those who have passed.