Queenie McKenzie (Nakarra) (formerly Oakes, or Mingmarriya) (c. 1915 – 16 November 1998) was an Aboriginal Australian artist. She was born on Old Texas Station, on the western bank of the Ord River in the East Kimberley.

Early life

McKenzie's mother was Malngin and Gurundji and her father was a white horse-breaker.

Under the existing policy during the time of her youth, McKenzie was at risk of removal by the government to an institution, as was the fate of many Aboriginal children with mixed parentage at the time. The government policy at the time (which lasted until 1970) sought to institutionalize mixed-race children. Her mother, however, prevented the displacement of her child by reportedly blackening her skin with charcoal, and the young girl grew up working for the stockmen of the cattle station at Texas Downs. She grew up amongst the Gija people and Gija was her first language.

McKenzie was an advocate and a healer while serving as a camp cook at the station and befriended Rover Thomas in the 1980s. One time, Thomas was thrown off his horse which trampled him, tearing his scalp and Mckenzie sewed it back together.

Mckenzie was inspired by Thomas and began learning to paint. Although she never received any formal training, Thomas encouraged her as she painted landscape paintings of the station. However, in the 1970s, Aboriginal workers on big cattle stations were laid off, and so Mckenzie with her husband, Charlie, settled in Warmun. In the Warmun community, other prominent artists emerged such as Hectoro Jandany, George Mung Mung, Jack Britten, Paddy Jaminji, and Hector Chundaloo.

McKenzie lived her entire life in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, knew the landscape intimately, and is quoted as saying: "Every rock, every hill, every water, I know that place backwards and forwards, up and down, inside out. It's my country and I got names for every place". Not only did she do landscape paintings, but she also depicted events that affected her community such as Blackfella Massacre which shows an incident between the police and Aboriginal people in 1922, along with "Living with Alcohol" in 1994. Over 154 works, her most famous pieces include Texas Downs, Balinji, My country- Texas Downs which highlights her landscape pieces. She also enjoyed painting owls which include pieces such as Mook Mook Owls with Young and Domboyn Owls.

A painting by McKenzie depicting the Mistake Creek massacre was bought by the National Museum of Australia in 2005, but due to controversy over the facts of the event, part of the History Wars, it had never been hung. From July 2020 it was put on display as part of a new exhibition titled "Talking Blak to History" at the Museum.

Collections

  • Art Gallery of New South Wales
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia
  • Holmes à Court Collection
  • Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
  • National Gallery of Australia

Commercial success

McKenzie had her work shown in the first major showing of Kimberley, Images of Power, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1993. In April 1994, McKenzie, with other Aboriginal women, had an exhibition titled Bush Women at Fremantle Arts Centre. She also created her first prints in 1995 with Frank Gohier at the Northern Territory University Printmaking Workshop in Darwin, which were selected for the Fremantle Print Award. Also in 1995, Mckenzie's work was featured in The National Women's Art Exhibition at Hogarth Galleries.

In 1998 she was chosen to create fine art prints for the 2000 Sydney Olympics commemoration of Australian culture. McKenzie has also been consistently included within the Australian Indigenous Art Market top 100 index, ranking 21st in 2014.

Her works are held in the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia and Art Gallery of Western Australia, among others.

McKenzie was included in the Moorditj-Australian Indigenous Cultural Expressions CD-ROM, along with other Western Australian artists Jack Davis, Alma Toomath, Betty Egan, Michele Broun, the Pigram Brothers, Footprince, Wayne Barker, Sally Morgan, Jimmy Chi and Mary Pantjiti McLean.

In Western Australia, all pastoral land leases are up for renewal or surrender in 2015, including the Texas Downs station.

McKenzie was cited as an important influence on the work of the Australian ceramic artist Pippin Drysdale. She died on 16 November 1998, in Western Australia.

References

  • Queenie McKenzie at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
  • Example of a work by Queenie Nakarra , 2004, in the National Museum of Australia.