Kirsty Burgu

Kirsty Burgu is the youngest daughter of Roger Burgu (dec), a well-known Ngarinyin elder and painter. Kirsty was born at Mowanjum near Derby in the West Kimberley of Western Australia, where she has lived most of her life, except for time spent in study. She is a deep thinking artist who endeavours to pass on a message through her work.

Kirsty remains engaged in the traditional stories told to her by her mother and father, and Uncle Jeffrey Burgu as a child.

Kirsty says: ‘I really like painting. Painting is how I share all the stories I’ve been told with the young ones. I remember when I was small, the electricity would go off early. We would fall asleep around the fire, we didn’t have TV for entertainment. My dad would say: ‘come I’ll tell you story now,’ so me and my brother would go and sit in his arms and listen until we fell asleep. The paintings I do now have the stories that Dad mob told me. There are so many stories and they all have so much to teach us about life.’  

Kirsty is one of a new generation of painters at Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre who interpret the old stories in new ways. Mowanjum Wandjina culture is a living culture and Kirsty uses a wide-range of traditional and contemporary materials including: ochre on bark, ochre and acrylic on canvas, ink on paper, and woodcut, lino and silkscreen printing.

Kirsty has undertaken a number of commissions:

• Currently working on the illustration of a childrens book for publisher Magabala Books Broome WA
• Disability Services Commission WA, the work appeared on the cover of its Reconciliation Action Plan 2016-2018
• Arts Law Centre of Australia Sydney NSW
• Ashurst Lawyers Sydney NSW
• Derby District Hospital WA

Kirsty’s work is held in private collections throughout Australia and internationally.