Aboriginal Artists Series – Part 6

This week Marlene Doolan is in the spotlight. From a wwell-known artistic family, Marlene was raised in Santa Teresa in the Northern Territory. Like so many of the Aboriginal artists, she draws on Dreamtime stories shared by older family members. One defining item in her designs is the brilliant use of color. Her designs are sure to become a favorite.

“Bush Tucker After Rain” is one of the tuckers (food) as depicted within the bush tucker stories. The Northern Territory is an arid and semi-arid zone in Australia. Total rainfall for this area is low and irregular. However, when it rains for a short period, within a few days it will burst into colorful flowers almost everywhere. Duriing this period, plenty of bush tucker will be available. Some of the tuckers are:  bush beans, bush potato, bush tomato, wild apricots, bush plum, to name a few. This fabric is available in three colorways.

“Seven Sisters” – Australian Aboriginals tell several stories about seven sisters from the Dreaming Time, which is the time of creation of the universe by their ancestors. This story of seven sisters originated from the cluster of stars in the Taurus constellation.

“There were seven sisters who were all beautiful and elegant. Every man who saw them wished to marry one of the sisters. One day the sisters went into the bush with their digging sticks to gather foods including wood ants, witchetty grubs and honey ants. After a successful expedition, they sat down to enjoy a feast, never imagining that a lonely warrior name Warrumma was hiding close by watching them. While the sisters were eating, Warrumma took away two of the digging sticks and hid them. All the sisters looked for the two lost sticks in vain, but eventually the five sisters who still had their digging sticks sadly left without the two sisters whose sticks had been taken.

Clever Warrumma came out of hiding and firmly grabbed the two sisters by their waists. He promised to take good care of them and would marry them. The two girls decided that they would pretend to agree with Warrumma’s plan, while looking out for the opportunity to escape.

One day they were asked to cut pine bark for a fire. As soon as they climbed the pine trees the trees began to grow right up to the sky. Warrumma shouted in vain for them to come down. However, they continued climbing and were soon warmly welcomed to the sky by the five sisters anxiously waiting for them. Observe the constellation of Taurus carefully and you may see the two freed sisters as they arrive at their sisters’ camp in the sky.”

In her design, Marlene depicts luminous heavenly bodies suspended in the desert night sky. The Milky Way is represented as clouds of dots of different sizes and major stars are shown as a large dot surrounded by circles. Seven Sisters is available in 2 colorways.