Documenting memory, feeling and place, Yindjibarndi husband and wife duo Rodney Adams and Renee Wally chart their deep bonds to their ancestral homeland around the remote town of Roebourne, Western Australia in Places Around Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma Ngurra. In their individual and collaborative artworks, the artists reflect the quiet stillness of their Pilbara Ngurra (Country), highlighting special corners that they recall before the region was synonymous with mining giants. In many of the works, the artists have rubbed Pilbara earth into the ground of the canvas, purposely feeling the rough surface just as they do when walking on Country.
Through their collective imagination, Adams and Wally preserve the uniqueness of their home in the Northwest of WA in paint, hoping to memorialise it before further changes. Of his paintings, Rodney says, “I capture the scenes that a lot of tourists and people would see along their journey as they passing through my part of the Country and that’s inspiring me to do more to capture what is there now, before any other disturbance or destruction comes through that area.”
The show features two smaller yet poignant pieces that Wally created following a special trip to Yuin Country, New South Wales, in 2024. These works were included to acknowledge the lasting connection between the Yuin and Jindjibarndi Peoples, who are united despite the vast distance between them. The pieces also honour the profound bond the Yuin people share with their land—a connection that deeply resonated with Wally. Through these works, Wally highlights the ongoing partnership between the Yindjibarndi and Yuin peoples, celebrating their unity and shared respect for the land.
Whilst both landscape painters, Adams and Wally differ in their technical approaches to their artmaking; Adams renders recognisable scenes around Roebourne entirely from his memories of the place, embedding the work with a gentle, reflective sensibility. Wally layers her atmospheric perspective paintings with subtle dotting, referencing the traditional painting methods of family; “she loves her grandmother’s Country and always paints the hill as it’s where she’s always been taken for storytelling.” When collaborating, husband and wife work simultaneously, mixing colours for one another, giving guidance around the canvas and sharing different methods and stories to complete the work. Adams says, “It is very heart-warming, me and my partner working together. We both capture this place, handed down from our elders, what we try and paint on canvas, and so on and so on.”
Rachael Sandover, Yinjaa Barni Art Centre Manager, 2025
