Drawing from two very different sources of knowledge, and painting with a deep sense of history and cultural responsibility, Paddy Bedford mapped the rich history of the east Kimberley using stories from his father’s, mother’s and uncle’s country. Within his canvases, historical events together with the more mundane stories about daily life on cattle stations co-exist with profound and lyrical understanding of the land and its creation stories. Bedford explored the important stories from its past whilst painting the bones of the landscape with the waterholes, stockyards and roads that he traversed throughout his life. Painted in 2001, Camel Gap, documents an evolution in the artist’s painting style, moving beyond the more familiar ochre representations of country produced by earlier East Kimberley artists, and predicting his further innovative changes in palette and technique.

Camel Gap, also known as 'Gernawarliyan' to the local Gija people, is found in the traditional country of the artist’s mother. Located to the south-east of Bedford Downs station and adjacent to Marty’s bore, a few kilometers east of the Springvale – Lansdowne Road, it is a place where in mythological times, the goanna 'Garndoowoolany' camped in the 'ngarranggarni' (Dreaming). Garndoowoolany called out to 'Marranyi', the dingo, whom he saw at the top of the hill. It was here that Marranyi got stuck and became part of the rock. Its English name refers both to the shape of the hill and, also to the Afghan cameleers who, in the early twentieth century, travelled past this place on their journey south from the port at Wyndham to remote Kimberley communities and further afield for trade.

Related Works:

Camel Gap, 2004, ochres and pigment on linen, 150.0 × 180.0 cm, in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, 2012

Please note that all First Nations Art is created from a so called ‘Birds Eye’ view. This means that the paintings can be hung either horizontally as well as vertically.