Edna Dale and Petrina Bedford Dale / Wandjina Family (ED-PB198)

EDNA DALE

Edna Dale is a Ngarinyin woman and the Chairperson of Imintji Community, a small community located 220km from Derby, WA on the Gibb River Road. She lives here with her husband Lance Bedford (grandson of acclaimed East Kimberley artist Paddy Bedford) and their seven daughters and son.

Edna is the daughter of renowned Kimberley artist Jack Dale Mengenen (1920-2013). Growing up she spent much of her time by her father’s side travelling through their country, watching him paint and tell stories. Edna’s father taught her the Law, painting and showed her the many cave sites that are sacred to Ngarinyin people.

Edna has her own distinct style, her elongated Wandjina figures and minimalist aesthetic are a clear departure from the imagery of her father.

A lovely quietly spoken lady, Edna still lives on her traditional land and is the driving force behind encouraging other Ngarinyin people to use art to tell their stories and keep their culture strong. Her eldest daughter Petrina, also an artist, is carrying on this important tradition to a third generation.

Selected Group Exhibitions
• 2017 Sydney Opera House – Sydney Homeground Markets
• 2016 Darwin Art Fair – Darwin, NT
• 2016 Kimberley Art Prize – Derby, WA
• 2016 Mowanjum Festival – Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre, Derby, WA
• 2015 Darwin Art Fair –Darwin, NT
• 2015 Kimberley Art Prize – Derby, WA
• 2015 Mowanjum Festival – Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre, Derby, WA
• 2015 Shinju Art Prize
• 2014 Darwin Art Fair – Darwin, NT
• 2014 Kimberley Art Prize – Derby, WA
• 2014 Mowanjum Festival – Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre, Derby, WA
• 2014 Feature artist, Ashurst Legal Reconciliation Policy, Ashurst Legal
• 2013 Darwin Art Fair – Darwin, NT
• 2013 Kimberley Art Prize – Derby, WA
• 2013 Mowanjum Festival – Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre, Derby, WA
• 2013 Revealed, Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Gallery Central, Central Institute, Perth, WA
• 2012 Darwin Art Fair – Darwin, NT
• 2012 Kimberley Art Prize – Derby, WA
• 2012 Mowanjum Festival – Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre, Derby, WA

Bibliography
• 2013 Dale’s Daughter To Show Own Art, Broome Advertiser, Therese Phillips

Commissions
• 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony – Large Scale Sculpture

PETRINA BEDFORD DALE

Petrina Bedford Dale was born in Derby, WA in 1998 and is a third generation West Kimberley artist. Both her grandfathers – Jack Dale Mengenen (maternal) and Paddy Bedford (paternal) were celebrated Indigenous Kimberley artists.

Petrina’s mother, Edna Dale, is a senior artist and Petrina and her mother often paint side by side. Petrina was only 12 when her first artworks were included in an exhibition at Japingka Gallery in Perth alongside the works of her mother and grandfather. An incredible achievement for such a young artist.

Petrina is the oldest of eight children to her parents Edna and Lance – seven girls and a boy. Petrina is Gija skin on her father’s side and Ngarinyin on her mother’s side. She lives with her family at Imintji Community, 230km east of Derby along the Gibb River Road, where her mother is Chairperson.

Petrina was extremely close to her late grandfather Jack Dale who encouraged her to paint from a young age. Painting allowed Jack to pass on the stories of his country which relate to the Wandjina rock art of the West Kimberley.

Now in her twenties, Petrina is an established artist in her own right with an incredible talent and, we believe, an amazing career in front of her. Most definitely an artist to watch out for in the future.

Group Exhibitions

• 2024 Mowanjum Wandjinas, Art Mob, TAS
• 2019 Dungog Contemporary, NSW
• 2019 Moonie’s Art Studio/Gallery, Broome, WA
• 2017 Sydney Opera House Homeground Markets, Sydney, NSW
• 2016 Revealed, Fremantle Art Centre, Perth, WA
• 2016 Paintings & prints – Reveal, Thelma Johns, Perth, WA
• 2006 Jack Dale – A Kimberley History

Bibliography

• 2015 ‘Mowanjum Daytrip,’ Philippa Jahn, Desert River Sea, Art Gallery of Western Australia

This powerful painting is a deeply personal collaboration between mother and daughter, Edna Dale and Petrina Bedford Dale. It brings together ancestral knowledge, cultural tradition, and the strength of family.

At the heart of this work is the sacred story of the Wandjina babies, as passed down from Edna’s late father, Jack Dale Mengenen — a highly respected Ngarinyin elder and lawman. According to tradition, young spirit babies wait in the sea at the mouth of the river, hoping for the high tide to carry them upstream to Wuni-Ari — the Wungud sacred waterhole. There, they search for a mother and father. If they are chosen, they are joyful; if not, they return to the sea and wait again. Wungud is also the place where women go to dream of babies. Jack Dale said that his own daughters, Edna and Joanna, came from these sacred places.

The Wandjinas shown in this painting are ancestral spirits central to the Ngarinyin people of the Kimberley — creators, rainmakers, and guardians of law and ceremony.

Painted using natural ochres the work is grounded in Country. By painting together, Edna and Petrina carry forward a legacy — honouring the old ways while sharing them anew.

This is not just a painting — it is a living story of culture, family and continuity.