Lily Karadada / Rainmaker Wandjina (LK20-N)

Lily was born around 1921 at Woombangowangoorr in the Prince Regent River region. Her name, Mindindil, means bubbles and refers to a spring linked to her birth. With her husband Jack Karadada she settled at Kalumburu, where they founded one of the Kimberley's most important artistic families.

Her Wandjina are compact and broad-shouldered, framed by dots that evoke rain and bubbling water and often joined by turtles, snakes and birds. She painted on bark, canvas and slate, cut her own bark for coolamons into old age, and took part in the pioneering 1976 Perth exhibition of Kimberley bark painting. She received the Centenary Medal in 2003 and a printmaking fellowship with Australian Print Workshop in 2009. Lily passed away in Kununurra in 2026, a much-loved friend of Artlandish.