Inspired by Mother Earth
Enchanted by the history & culture of the Kimberley region
Created by Jessica Duff - Wyndham, Western Australia
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The artist - Jessica Duff 

A short autobiography 

I was born in West Wittering a small coastal town in the south of England  in April 1952.My family is so extended and so complicated that I will take up the story when I left England at 15 years old to go 'journeying'. I covered many miles before I arrived in Halls Creek a small community in the North of Western Australia, (population under 1,000) in 1979. I remember turning a corner, driving my two stroke Suzuki over a rise in  the dusk and seeing the lights of Halls Creek on the horizon.

For the first time in my life I felt as though I had 'come home' and the people of Halls Creek welcomed me like I was the prodigal returned. So began a love affair with the Kimberley and the people. I spent a lot of time 'out bush' and still love to be on my own (with a dog or two by my side), out in the country, knowing that it is only the spirits and I, for hundreds of miles. The scenery is magnificent and the people have a simplistic honesty about them that I had not experienced on any of my previous travels. 

I became very sick in 1993 and a friend told me if I began to paint with dots in the traditional way I would begin to recover. I did paint and I am now recovered and have developed my own style of art which includes the healing dots in respect of Aboriginal people. 

All profits from the sale of these cards will be returned to the Kimberley. One of our bigger projects is to assist in the building of a wild life centre in Kununurra to give Dr Sarah Brett a place to rehabilitate and care for injured wildlife. This project is well underway with a group of dedicated carers and assistance from sponsoring businesses, the local government and the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land. I still live and work in the Kimberley. Though I have planed to one day live closer to a sea that has no crocodiles in it, I find it increasingly hard to leave what I believe is the last place on Earth that has not allowed man to destroy it with his greed. The spirits of the ancient ones who had the land in their keeping are loosing their power as new generations have begun to buy, sell, use and own the country without any respect for it. 

The world has gone a bit crazy lately. We forgot what it was to be loved and to love. I was shocked a few years ago when I realised that other  people did not have the support and network of friends and family that I have. I took for granted, (and still do), that people liked me and would do their best for me as I would for them. My friend Wendy Lewis says "I expect every one to like me and am very shocked when I meet one that doesn't". Most people I realise expect people not to like them because we live in a world that has taught us we are never good enough. I believe we are all here to experience every aspect of life and when we have done so will go back to God. We are not being judged nor have the right to judge we are all simply experiencing. 

We have forgotten how to care for our neighbour when he is in trouble and in doing so our neighbour has no option but to stop caring for us. One thing I do know is that these cards would not have been possible without  the good will of many people, so it works for me.
 


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All artwork copyright of Alan Symes - Darwin, Australia 2002