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Glen Mackie

GLEN MACKIE | 'Barramundi' | Acrylic painting

GLEN MACKIE | 'Barramundi' | Acrylic painting

$1,013.64 AUD
$1,013.64 AUD
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"This painting is about my Aboriginal and Torres strait side. For a long time I would dream about the barramundi, I try to deny the dream's because I didn't know my Aboriginal side but I would dream about the Barra all the time but brush it aside. I moved to the NT with my girlfriend and my daughter to live in the aboriginal community, my misses is a teacher at Gunbalanya school and it was my first time living in an Aboriginal community because I was raised on the islands in the Torres Strait. 

Living in the Aboriginal community I learned about the law and the culture it opened my eyes and my aboriginal side.  The more I was learning, I dreamed more about the Barra. I couldn't ignore the dreams so I started to put it on canvas and paint it. When I moved back to Cairns after 9 years I met my father and my father's people. I met one of my cousin's sister, when she seen the barramundi painting she told me the story from Mapoon about the nine brothers, the Barramundi Brothers so when he visits my dreams I would paint it. I will never stop painting the Barramundi " - Glen Mackie

Glen Mackie (Kei Kalak) is from Iama/Yam Island, and his totems are the hammerhead shark and the crocodile. His bold minarr, or infill-design style, incorporates family totemic designs as well as his own invented repeating patterns. He retells the myths and stories he inherited from older family members, and credits his artist grandfather for teaching him to carve. Mackie fiercely wants to preserve his culture by retelling the stories of his community for the benefit of young people of the Islands and the general public.
He retells the myths and legendary stories he inherited from older family members. As one of Yam Island’s few practising artists he feels he has a responsibility to keep alive the sacred stories of the four brothers who travelled from the north before memory and settled Zenadh Kes, more commonly known as the Central and eastern Torres Strait Island.
Glen Mackie (Kei Kalak)
Kulkalgal people.
Born 1975, Kala Lagaw Ya Country, Iama/Yam Island, Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Islands.
Lives and works Gimuy Walaburra Yidinji/Yirrangangi Country, Gimuy/Cairns, Queensland.
GLEN MACKIE | 'Barramundi' | 2024 | Acrylic painting |  61 (h) x 61 (w) cm
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