Regina Pilawuk Wilson

Born 1948 in the Daly River region, Northern Territory, Australia.

Regina Pilawuk Wilson is a Ngan’gikurrungurr woman. Her work is exhibited widely, and is housed in public and private collections both in Australia and internationally. She is regarded as one of Australia’s leading Indigenous artists, and is the founder of the Peppimenarti community – the permanent settlement for the Ngan’gikurrungurr people in the Daly River Region since 1973.

The location of Peppimenarti is an important dreaming site for the Ngangikurrungurr language group and informs Regina’s art and weaving practices – skills she inherited from her grandmother and mother. After attending the Contemporary Art Biennale (Pacific Arts Festival) in 2000, Regina decided to add acrylic painting to her repertoire. Regina experimented with various painting techniques and designs during workshops held by the Darwin gallerist Karen Brown. During this time, she started to transfer her weaving designs and patterns into canvas, including syaw (fish-net), wupun (basket), string bags, wall mats and sun mats.

Regina won the General Painting category of the Telstra National Indigenous and Torres-Strait Islander Award in 2003 for a golden syaw (fish-net) painting. The cultural significance of ‘message sticks’ are also celebrated in her paintings– a traditional form of communication between communities. This is her story of the message stick (with assistance by Peppimenarti elder Captain Wodij):

When we were young we used to live at Daly River and his mob used to live at Uban, near Timber Creek.

There was no road, no anything.

They used to carry message sticks

They used to come to Daly River from Uban.

For weeks they used to travel.

They carried message sticks to remember how many days they travel to that certain place.

It was like first Aboriginal education… just to remember how many days to travel from a certain place to Daly.

They used to travel from here to Beswick too.

Even in flood waters.

They used to swim creeks and rivers to get to a place for ceremony.

This was before WWII.

They were really young men. I remember they used to come.

When the war started they moved back to Uban.

They used to walk long way, no motor car.

They used to join up at Moyle River to fight different clans.

They used to swim in the sea, no boat and less crocodiles.

Also by bringing the message stick they would bring people back with them… they would all walk together, sometimes for one year. Sometimes stay in one place for camp: big mob food, turtle, yam, fish.

They would walk slowly, those old people.

And children too, and babies. They’d have the babies half way. We used to have bush nurses who would cut the cord with a mussel shell.

They used to take message stick to boss man of a language group. If Boss says yes, they’d all move.

If a mob went to another country for burning grass, the leader would get angry and a message stick would follow. Then there would be war.

If a man went off with message stick and didn’t return, they think big trouble. A different clan would go and steal another man’s wife.

Message stick is for war and ceremony and things like that.

That message stick means a lot.

The subject of durrmu (body painting dot) has more recently been explored by Regina. Regina has produced silkscreen prints (2001, 2007,2010) and etchings (2007, 2009) with Red Hand and Basil Hall Editions.

Examples of Regina’s work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Gallery of Modern Art (Queensland Art Gallery), The British Museum and numerous private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas.

Her paintings have been included in many group exhibitions at public and private art institutions, including the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Art, the Wynne Prize (2008 and 2009), AGNSW, and Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters at the National Museum of the Arts, Washington.

Regina is a Cultural Support Officer with Durrmu Arts, and has been instrumental in the art centre’s establishment and continued strength and success.