Sky, Land & Sea Country – Stories of Connection and Ancestral Knowledge

• Artist: Jessica Lloyd
• Title: Southern Cross
• Size: 90cm x 65cm
• Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

The Southern Cross

Uncle the Eagle Hawk and two little boys, Pigeon and Wagtail. The boys used to take their uncle hunting for Bush honey and small animals such as lizards and bandicoots. To find the bush honey they would catch and stick a piece of grass or feather to the bee to make it stand out in the bush so they could follow it to their nest. It always led to Bush honey. When they told their uncle, he would make them climb the tree and hand down the honey to him or he would climb the tree himself and eat most of it and only leaving them a small amount. Uncle had a habit of leaving the boys with little to eat cooking and eating all the food for himself. This led to him being known as the Greedy Uncle. One day the boys were fed up with the uncle. So, they decided to trick him by digging a hole and placing sharp sticks at the bottom and then covering the hole with leaves. They then sung out to the uncle, “possum possum” in the hole. He knew the boys were good hunters, believing them he rushed over and started stamping on the leaves. The sticks/stakes went through his foot making him very sick. He asked for the healers to come and heal his feet, but his feet were very swollen and toxic, full of poison. The healers said they couldn't do anything for him. Uncle died and his feet turned into Talons. The talons then broke off and flew into the sky when the feet flew into the sky and became the Southern Cross. When you look into the sky today, we can see the Southern Cross and the stake at the dead centre of the claw. This is the story of our people.

• Artist: Jessica Lloyd
• Title: Fat Goanna Time
• Size: 66cm x 90cm
• Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
• Region: Mullewa, WA.  Broome, WA

Jessica Lloyd

Jessica Lloyd is a contemporary Aboriginal artist whose work explores Creation stories, sky Country, ancestral knowledge and the deep spiritual relationships between land, sea and sky. Through vibrant colour, symbolism and storytelling, her paintings reflect cultural teachings passed through generations and her own lived experiences connecting with Country alongside family.

Jessica is widely recognised for her solo exhibition Sky Country, which explored the significance of stars, celestial movement and ancestral storytelling within Aboriginal cultural knowledge systems. Her works interpret the connections between sky Country and Creation time narratives, expressing the ways stories, navigation, identity and spirituality are embedded within the night sky and carried through generations.

Her artistic practice is grounded in strong family and cultural influences. Jessica is the granddaughter of Faye Parriman, a respected Yamatji and Noongar artist, educator and Stolen Generations survivor whose storytelling and advocacy have profoundly shaped the family’s creative practice. She is also the daughter of Natasha Lloyd, an award-winning contemporary Aboriginal artist known for works reflecting both desert and saltwater Country connections. Jessica’s cultural influences are further shaped by her grandfather Kevin Parriman, a respected Jabirr Jabirr/Ngumbarl and Yawuru storyteller, cultural educator and carver from the West Kimberley whose teachings continue to inspire the family’s connection to saltwater Country.

Jessica’s artistic achievements include creating Sky, Land and Sea Country, the specially commissioned artwork presented as the official stump gift for the National Indigenous Cricket Championships for NT Cricket in 2026. The work celebrated the journeys that bring people together from across Australia through cricket while honouring deep connections between family, culture and Country.

Alongside her sisters Celina Lloyd and Leticia Lloyd, Jessica continues a strong intergenerational artistic practice shaped by time spent on both saltwater and desert wildflower Country. Through visits to family homelands, shared storytelling and cultural learning on Country, her work reflects ongoing connections to place, memory and ancestral knowledge.

In Beyond Everlastings, Jessica presents works that honour the interconnectedness of sky, land and sea Country while continuing family narratives of cultural survival, storytelling and identity. Her contemporary practice reflects both inherited cultural knowledge and her own artistic interpretation of Country, contributing to the ongoing intergenerational dialogue shared throughout the exhibition.

• Artist: Dr Faye Parriman, Natasha Lloyd, Celina Lloyd, Leticia Lloyd, Jessica Lloyd
• Title: Beyond Everlasting Ugudungu
• Size: 152cm x 145cm
• Medium: Acrylic on Canvas 
• Region: Mullewa WA

Due to the large size of this piece, shipping is $200 to capital cities within Australia. If insurance is required, please email info@aboriginalbushtraders.com to arrange payment. 

Beyond Everlasting Ugudungu
By Dr Faye Parriman, Natasha Lloyd, Celina Lloyd, Leticia Lloyd and Jessica Lloyd

My name is Faye Parriman. I am a Noongar and Yamatji woman from Western Australia, born in the small town of Mullewa. When I was a little child, I was taken from my family and placed at Tardun Mission, where I grew up. Tardun became my home, but being separated from my family and Country at such a young age was deeply sad and upsetting.

At the mission, Sundays were special. We would be loaded onto a truck or bus and taken out into the bush. Those few hours on Country gave us freedom, joy and a sense of belonging. We would wander through the landscape looking for bush tucker, and when the wildflowers were in bloom, we would head straight for the fields of everlasting daisies and pom-poms.

I still remember seeing those endless carpets of flowers from the bus windows and calling out, “There! We want to go there — look at all the pom-poms and everlastings!” As soon as the bus stopped, we would run through the fields, rolling among the flowers, picking them, making jewellery, laughing and playing together. We made headbands, necklaces and bangles from the flowers because we had nothing else. Those moments brought us happiness and helped us survive the hardships of mission life.

Among the everlasting flowers were spider orchids, hidden beneath shrubs and small trees. Sometimes there would be only one orchid, sometimes a small cluster. They were scattered across the landscape, never easy to find, and they became my favourite flower. In this painting, the orchids appear scattered throughout the composition, just as they appeared in Country when I was a child.

For many years, those memories remained locked away in my heart.

More than twenty years ago, I was sitting there trying to think about what to paint. My son-in-law said to me, “Paint your story.”

That simple suggestion changed everything.

For a long time, I had been afraid to paint the wildflowers because doing so meant revisiting memories that were painful and deeply emotional. But I finally gathered the courage to put those memories onto canvas. I called that first painting Everlasting Memories.

When I finished it, I cried.

When I sold it, I cried again.

Those tears marked the beginning of a healing journey. Through painting, I began releasing the memories I had carried for so long. The wildflowers helped me reconnect with Country, culture, family and myself. They carried the colours, beauty and spirit of the Country I remembered as a child. They brought me home.

Beyond Everlasting Ugudungu continues that journey.

This work was created collaboratively with my daughter, Natasha Lloyd, and my granddaughters, Celina Lloyd, Leticia Lloyd and Jessica Lloyd. Together, we painted this artwork, each brushstroke and dot carrying our connection as women, artists, mothers, daughters and granddaughters. It is a story that moves across three generations.

As part of this journey, we returned to my Country together. We walked through the landscapes that inspired my earliest paintings and visited the places where the everlasting flowers bloom. The young women experienced the Country for themselves, seeing not only the flowers but also the strength, resilience and love that lives within that land.

We also travelled to Kalbarri, part of my traditional Country, where I was able to reconnect with the lands of my grandmothers and great-grandparents. Standing on those ancestral lands alongside my daughter and granddaughters was a powerful experience. The girls saw the beauty of the wildflowers, but they also witnessed the deeper stories held within the landscape.

They fell in love with the Country.

Now they return whenever they can.

What began as my personal healing journey has become a shared family journey. The stories, knowledge and connection to Country continue to grow through each generation. It is important that these stories are handed down so that my grandchildren can continue telling them, painting them, and sharing them with future generations.

When we painted this work together, the five of us, I felt immense pride and joy. As a grandmother, it means everything to be able to teach my granddaughters how to paint these flowers and understand the stories they carry. Knowing that they now love this Country and these wildflowers as I do gives me hope that these stories will continue long into the future.

Beyond Everlasting Ugudungu is more than a painting of wildflowers.

It is a living story of survival, healing, remembrance and return.

It honours the strength of our ancestors, the resilience of Stolen Generations survivors, and the enduring connection between family and Country. Carried by five artists and three generations of women, this story continues to grow stronger each time we walk back onto Country together.