Diyari

Born 1944, Tibooburra, New South Wales

Resides Broken Hill, New South Wales

Irene’s recent work includes a series of paintings based on the toas of the Lake Eyre region, an area traditionally occupied and owned by her ancestors. Toas are small sculptural objects that were made in large numbers by the Diyari at Killalpaninna Mission at the beginning of the 20th century. They were described as a being like signposts or direction markers. Each toa directly represents features of the landscape or refers to ancestral figures or stories. Irene has been inspired in her painting by the catalogue of the 1986 South Australian Museum exhibition Art and Land which featured these toas.