Noreen Parker

Noreen was born in the bush at Possum Well, a rock hole near Fregon on the APY Lands of South Australia. Her family lived a traditional nomadic life and while travelling through country they were directly affected by the first nuclear atomic rocket testing in the 1950s at Emu Fields and the second bomb at Maralinga. Noreen’s paintings focus on the stories passed down to her by her mother.

“When my mother was a young girl, about 15 years, the people were living in the bush. My mother told me this story, how the people were all sitting down and they saw a big light and then lots of smoke, the smoke just went up and up and up.The people were frightened, they thought it was a walpa pulka (big storm) or the wanampi (rainbow serpent). My Uncle had gone to hunt bush tucker in Maralinga Country, he never came back, he died from that bomb, that’s a true story”.