Edna Dale / Djalala Wandjina (ED219)

Edna Dale was born in 1983 and is a Ngarinyin artist and Traditional Owner from the West Kimberley of Western Australia. She lives at Imintji Community on the Gibb River Road, approximately 220 kilometres from Derby, where she holds the important leadership role as Chairperson of the community.

Edna is the daughter of renowned Ngarinyin elder and artist Jack Dale Mengenen (c.1922–2013). From an early age she spent considerable time travelling Country with her father, listening to his stories and learning about Ngarinyin Law, culture and the important Wandjina sites of their ancestral Country. Jack's knowledge centred particularly on Imintji and Bell Gorge, and he impressed upon Edna the importance of painting the stories and Wandjinas belonging to their own Country.

Although surrounded by painting, Edna did not initially imagine becoming an artist herself. In her early twenties she would watch her father paint and help prepare his brushes and canvases, while Jack continually encouraged her to paint. It was later, when her father's health declined, that Edna began painting seriously. By around 2012 she had come to recognise herself as an artist in her own right. Jack was immensely proud to see his daughter continuing the stories he had entrusted to her.

Wandjina remain at the heart of Edna's practice. Her paintings depict the ancestral Wandjina of her Ngarinyin Country, drawing upon the stories, cultural knowledge and important sites shared with her by her father. Edna has developed a distinctive contemporary style, characterised by bold, simplified forms, strong outlines, restrained detail and striking compositions. While firmly grounded in the knowledge passed to her by Jack, her paintings have a visual language that is very much her own.

For Edna, painting is inseparable from maintaining knowledge and connection to Country. She has spoken of feeling the presence of the old people when visiting ancient Wandjina rock-art sites with her father, and of her responsibility to ensure that the stories he taught her are not lost. She has also been an active advocate for artists within her community, encouraging Ngarinyin people to paint, share their stories and strengthen culture through art.

This continuation now extends across three generations. Edna's eldest daughter, Petrina Bedford Dale, is also an artist, and mother and daughter frequently paint together. Through their work, the cultural and artistic knowledge passed from Jack Dale Mengenen to Edna continues into another generation.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2020 Mowanjum Artists 2020, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 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

In Ngarinyin culture, the Wandjina are ancestral creator beings who made the Country and established the Law, stories and ceremonies that continue to guide Ngarinyin people. The Wandjina depicted by Edna is connected to Bell Gorge, part of her family's traditional Ngarinyin Country.

The circular forms are Djalala, marking stones traditionally used to define boundaries between lands and to signal important sacred sites associated with the Wandjina. The Djalala are part of an enduring system of cultural knowledge connecting people, Law, sacred places and Country.

In Edna's paintings, the Djalala may appear within the body of the Wandjina or surrounding the figure, bringing together the Wandjina and the places in Country to which the story belongs.