Queenie McKenzie

Queenie McKenzie was a revered Gija painter whose life traced the rocky ranges and river flats of Texas Downs and Warmun in the East Kimberley. Born on station country and raised amid the upheavals of assimilation policy, she carried an unbroken commitment to culture that shaped every chapter of her life. Long before she picked up a brush, McKenzie was known as a steadfast custodian of women’s law, a role she upheld with conviction, from protecting sacred sites to guiding younger generations.

Encouraged to paint later in life, she developed a distinctive visual language rooted in ochre, memory and place. Her canvases map beloved hills, story places and lived histories, arranged with the compressed perspectives characteristic of the East Kimberley school. Both intimate and political, her works speak to ancestral narratives, daily life on cattle stations and the resilience of her community. McKenzie’s legacy endures as one of deep cultural authority and artistic clarity, securing her place among Australia’s most respected First Nations painters.

Need to define the interactive map functionality, we can add lat/long values as custom fields TBD.

Queenie McKenzie

Country

Register Interest

Enquire