I am Gudanji/Wakaja and I grew up in a remote community in the Northern Territory. I am also my dad’s daughter so I have English/Irish and Spanish/Austrian heritage and went surfing on the Gold Coast with my paternal grandparents at holiday time too. It is all important, it has all contributed to who I am.

We had the recent pleasure of getting to know a little more about Ryhia (pronounced rye-ah) Dank, the creative mind behind Nardurna.

crolling the seemingly bottomless nardurna Instagram account feels like it has been there almost as long as the image-sharing platform itself. And yet this vast collection of traditional iconography set out in bright contemporary colours has all come about in just three short years.

Contemporary Aboriginal artist Gudanji/Wakaja woman Ryhia Dank is based in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast and paints her feelings and traditional stories.

Numerous key galleries and museums such as aMBUSH, Sydney have featured Ryhia Dank's work in the past.

“The message in my storywork is about creating opportunities for us all to build and maintain relationships with Country. For thousands and thousands of years, First peoples of this continent have maintained strong, responsible connections with each other and the lands on which we live,” Ryhia says of the vibrant design.

I grew up in two worlds. I grew up in the Gulf of Carpentaria [NT] and also down here in Buderim in Queensland. We moved all the time. My mum wanted us to know how to be comfortable in the city and also to know our story. I changed schools all the time. My mum is a teacher, and I was homeschooled. I can say that she taught me everything I know. It was amazing living out on the station [in the Northern Territory] . We had no hot water, no electricity, lived in a caravan. You get up when the sun’s rising. You work with your uncles and aunties. It’s a very fun and different experience when you’re a child. When you grow up out bush you’re not considered a child. You learn to drive when you’re seven. You’re given all this responsibility at such an early age and then you come down into the city and you’re treated like a child. It’s very different."

What attracts you to this work? What makes you cross the room to take a closer look? Detail, use of color, drama, movement, materials, pattern, ornament, gesture, visual poetry, repetition, raw emotion, deconstruction, drawing and line.

Aboriginal Art – it is inspirational, provocative and incredibly beautiful. For many it is also an asset. It can be a daunting experience entering in to the art market and taking that almighty ‘leap of faith’ and invest in an artwork!

That’s why we’ve created this page. We believe everyone should enjoy exceptional, ethical art and this ‘insider’s perspective’ should help answer your questions on what to look for when buying an Aboriginal work of Art. This advice comes from the staff at Kate Owen Gallery, who have a combined total of 50+ years in the art consultancy business.

To me it is that all that variety, the depths of meaning that is so valuable. As a non-initiated Westerner, I’ll never know the full story behind aboriginal art. You have to be fully initiated to be privy to particular Dreaming Stories. Usually I find that the artist wants you to share in what can be shared. I guess that’s why I like it. They can tell you quite a lot about it without breaching their codes. To me it works on two levels. It works in this level of a story if you like, but aboriginal art can also work as abstract art. It’s not abstract art, but it definitely works on that level and that sometimes the first way that people are initially drawn to Aboriginal art. They see a painting, they just love the palette, the composition, the scale, the depth. They don’t know anything about the story, but they love the painting.

The Wet-Season

It’s coming into the wet season at home, its called the build-up. I hope we get a good lot of water to wash away the dust, fill the waterholes, rivers and creeks, Country needs to have its fill of freshwater.

We go fishing to catch barra in the McArthur River and make sure we have a good supply of food, when the rain comes, Borroloola and all the surrounding stations get cut off. We all make sure everyone in the community has food and fresh water.

When the rain comes it floods and the crocodiles move, they sometimes go into freshwater rivers and creeks, there isnt a lot of swimming going on, but one day mum, dad and one of my grannies took us for a drive to a place where the water was running over the road; it was car tire deep, there was fish trying to swim against the current and little crabs which I thought was weird cause we were a long way from the ocean. We went swimming here, we were safe.

This original artwork will be available for sale soon on my website. Join my mailing list for all updates.

Ryhia Dank, a young Gudanji/Wakaja artist from the Northern Territory is the winner of the prestigious National NAIDOC poster competition for 2022 with her entry, Stronger.

“I created this piece after reading this year’s National NAIDOC Week theme – Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! I knew straight away I wanted to do a graphic piece centred around our flags with text highlighting what we have been through and are still fighting for” said Ryhia. “I feel that this piece being black and white allows us to focus on the details and messages in the artwork”

Boost Australia has partnered with Indigiearth, a fully Indigenous Australian owned business, to deliver 3 new exciting flavours.

Head into any Boost store within Australia now to sip on some delicious flavours and also experience the incredible campaign artwork created by Ryhia Dank of nardurna.