Jawoorroowan - Kookaburra and Peregrine Falcon Dreaming

Rusty Peters was a senior Gija man of Joowoorroo skin, born on Springvale Station, southwest of Warmun/Turkey Creek. Like many men from the Kimberley region, Peters was a stockman in his formative years, later becoming an assistant at Warringarri Arts in the 1990s, and eventually moving to paint at Jirrawun Arts, where he started to actively produce more works until its closure in 2010. He then moved to work at Warmun Arts Centre. Peters realised several major, larger scale works while at Jirrawun and this work is drawn from this period.

In 'Jawoorroowan – Kookaburra and Peregrine Falcon Dreaming' 2004, Rusty Peters shares with us the moment in the Ngarrangkarni when the blue-winged kookaburra and the peregrine falcon changed from men into birds. Peters brings attention to the kookaburra, who, after hunting snakes in earnest, then became the hunted himself, fleeing from a group of men who saw the kookaburra man and its spoils. The kookaburra man escaped through a hole in the boab tree, seen in the circular form dissected by the middle join of the two canvases, and he was closely chased by the peregrine falcon man. The falcon hit its head on the tree, rather than making it through the hole, and was laughed at by other birds and the men. Peters also details that this is a place where hills stretch across Country, coming from the south of Warmun towards Jawoorroowan, an area which has been used by Gija since time immemorial as an important camping ground.