Griffiths Untitled:2008 Natural ochre on canvas

Peggy Griffiths
Untitled 2008
Natural ochre on canvas 140 x100cm
Catalogue:993408

    Born to Dianah Dingle and Frank Moore on Newry Station, Peggy's father left the family during her early childhood years. The station manager's wife advised her mother to send Peggy to school at the Kimberley Research Station.  At 15 her mother took her out of school to Argyle Station and told Peggy she had been promised in marriage to Alan Griffiths when she turned 16. Peggy and her future husband were told to leave and they moved to Kununurra. Today they have 5 children and many grandchildren all of whom have been taught traditional stories and culture.

     Peggy is well informed about her family and bush life around the Goodim community and Newry. It was here that she saw old people taken away from the camp with chains around their necks and here that she learned to dance all the traditional dances. Peggy is now one of the most senior women at Waringarri Arts.  Teaching other artists, Peggy was for many years, until recently, the Chairperson of Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, a community owned and led organisation for its members.  Her works document the traditional country of her father and grandfather and her most recent works capture the movement of wind through this spinifex country.