"Shopping Day" by Joey Williams Pongillj

Acrylic Paint on Canvas

Born: Mount Barker, WA

Size: 100 x 75cm

Joey Williams is a talented and prolific Aboriginal artist out of Mt Barker in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia. His colorful traditional art depicts many aspects of country, life, and spirit.

Joey is an Elder and Lore Man of the Koreng people and a talented artist. As a child, he lived in the bush with his family and the traditional knowledge of living in harmony with Mother Earth, was passed on to him. He has also perfected a landscape painting style, that he learned from his famous artist Aunty, Bella Kelly, the original influencer of the Carrolup Mission art. Joey’s father was Jack Williams ‘Poornarti’. He was named a State Living Treasure for his cultural work and in 2012 received this letter from the Queen, thanking him for a message stick he had sent her.

In Joey’s own words

“Kaya Wanju - Hello and welcome to Noongar country. The South West of Western Australia is the country of the Noongar people. For thousands of years before European settlement, Aboriginal people lived in harmony with the land. The earth is their "Boodja", mother, and that is our Mother Earth. You were not born into this world, you were born from and by it, as a leaf from a tree, and as a breeze from the sky….”