Awelye Ena-nakamarra-gibson-tag Phyllis Thomas is a Gija

Phyllis Thomas is a Gija woman of Nagarra skin whose bush name

Jorna’s paintings often focused on sacred sites and on the animals and plants commonly found in the country surrounding her community

lightening and thunder from Kiiwirrkurra

searching for goanna

Awelye Ena-nakamarra-gibson-tag Phyllis Thomas is a GijaGalyas work is distinctive and highly individual. Her early paintings, dating from around 2004, drew on Portulaca oleraceaknown as munyerooa grass once abundant in the Utopia region and an important food source for generations. Its tiny black seed became central to her imagery, with Galya adopting its half circle form as a dominant motif in her paintings. Over fifty years of cattle grazing greatly reduced the abundance of this grass. In her paintings,