Description
Amy Loogatha, born in 1942 is from Dulkawalne, Bentinck Island. She is the older and Ethel Thomas the youngest of King Alfred and Thelma Loogatha.
Artist Statement:
“Makarrki is a major estuary in northern Bentinck Island. At Makarrki, the largest source of meat in the Kaiadilt world – dugong, would regularly enter the estuary during high tide. Sneaking in behind them, the Kaiadilt men would erect long nets across the narrow mouth of the eastern lagoon and wait for the tide to retreat. The returning dugong fell prey to the nets, entangling themselves, whereupon the men with their bare hands would wrestle them, climbing on their necks and drowning them in the shallows. Makarrki was a traditional slaughterhouse where livestock herded itself, by virtue of the Kaiadilt’s exploitation of natural tidal flows.”
“Rukathi is on Bentinck Island, we also call it call it Oak Tree Point. This is the place where our Father, King Alfred, is buried. Our last name is supposed to be Rukathi, but the missionaries mispronounced it and today we are known as Loogatha.”
