Beverley Pickett
Beverley, born in 1955, in Gnowangerup, WA is a Noongar Aboriginal. She began her training in the late 1980s at Marribank, Katanning. She is a versatile artist who paints traditional Aboriginal stories and legends, relating in particular to the natural environment and often using animals as central subjects. The stories she tells through her paintings have been handed down to her by her Noongar Aboriginal Elders.
Animals in Aboriginal culture are a significant part of the teaching of young people. Animals and their habits provide important lessons in life. They are also an important food source and are respected as strainers of life and conveyors of knowledge. Aboriginal people also study animals to learn which plants and seeds are edible.
Beverley often depicts the mother lizard teaching her young how to forage for food. The Aboriginal people use this symbolic narrative and image to emphasize the importance of parenting and child-rearing. The lizard and snake represent two primary sources of life, food, and water. The snake is believed to lead the Aboriginal people to water and the lizard to food. The lizard is also often coupled with the turtle, as the lizard is a natural predator of the turtle eggs and has come in search of them as they prepare to leave the nest and head towards the water after hatching.
Keeping the balance of the land is very important to the Aboriginal people as the natural environment is their source of food, water, shelter, and spiritual well-being. It is through the teaching of the animals that Aboriginal people learn to live in harmony with nature.
