Lily Karedada

Other names: Karedada, Lilly, Mienindill, Karadeda, Garadada

Born:               1937 c.
State:              WA
Region:             East Kimberley
Community:          Kalumburu
Language:           Wunambal
Social Affiliation: Jiddangul subsection, Yilangal, Jirrengger

Medium:
Bark painting, carving, carved boab nuts, engraved slate, clapsticks, shields,
ochres on canvas, ochres on slate, ochres on bark, bark basket, material culture 

Subjects:    Wandjina, Bradshaw figures 


Collections:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
Christensen Collection, held Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.; 



Exhibitions:
1981, Die kunst der Australischen Ureinwohner lebt, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Leipzig,
      Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Dresden; 
1988, Karnta, Touring South-east Asia, [non selling Karnta show]; 
1990, Balance 1990: views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane.; 
1991, Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; 
1992, Broome Fringe Festival, Broome; 
1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria,
      Melbourne; 1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National 
      Gallery of Victoria



Select Bibliography:
Aboriginal Artists of Western Australia, [n.d.] - [folios of works and biographies],
Aboriginal Education Resources Unit, Western Australia.

McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & 
Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales. 

Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National 
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 

Stanton, J., 1989, Painting the Country: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley 
Region, Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western 
Australia. (C)

1991, Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.



© Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian 
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies



Notes:
Lily was born in the Prince Regent River area 1921.  Her surname is normally spelt 
"Karedada", but the others above are also correct.  From her father's country, 
Woombangowangoorr, she went with her mother and family to Mitchell Plateau.  She married 
Jack Karadada and eventually settled in Kalumburu, where she still lives with her huge 
extended family.

Lily is definitely one of Australia's most important contemporary Aboriginal artists. 
Whilst she varies her subject matter, she has never compromised on style.   Lily's 
paintings are instantly recognisable, and she is as comfortable with ochre as she is 
with acrylic medium.  Her slate carvings are much prized, as are her bark paintings 
and her amazing bark coolamons, shaped and painted, complete with brush string and 
made exactly the same as she was carried as a baby.

Lily paints WANDJINA - with varied totems, rain dotting, lightning (Black Wandjina), 
turtles, cave pools with bubbles - all different, but all Lily Karadada!

A lovely lady with a wonderful, infectious laugh - once met, never forgotten.

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