• 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: Jessica Lloyd
• Title: Two Nans 
• Size: 106cm x 114cm
• Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
• Region: Mullewa, WA.   Broome, WA

Due to the large size of this piece, shipping is $175 to capital cities within Australia. If insurance is required, please email info@aboriginalbushtraders.com to arrange payment. 

2 Nannas & the Emu Nest/The Giant Emu in the Sky

My nanna always shows me how the stars tell us about the life of the emu. By Looking at the giant emu in the sky she can tell when it is mating season and when the male emus are sitting on the eggs. This story is during the cooler months (June/July) when the male emus are sitting on the eggs.

Nanna and nanna Edie were young girls and one afternoon they spotted a big emu nest while riding their bikes through the bush. Leaving their bikes they sneaked their way through the scrubs looking out for the male emu. With nanna Edie on lookout making sure the emu wasn't around nanna Faye slowly crawled to the nest, using her hands to feel for eggs. One at a time she reached for the eggs (she could only carry 2). She crawled back to nanna Edie rushing back to their bikes as it was now late in the afternoon. The family got worried for them as it was getting really dark and when they got back to their family, they got into big trouble.

Pop Jonathon is my nanna’s brother. When pop Jonathon lived with us (my mum, dad, my sisters and me) he also taught us about the giant emu in the sky. Pop Jonathon calls our mum his daughter and us girls are his grannies. Pop Jonathon is a Ngangkari, a desert healer and the giant emu in the sky is his totem. He gave us his story and taught us to paint all the different parts of the story, even how to paint the leaves of the giant tree and the spears.

When my great nanna, nanna lily, was pregnant she was eating emu with her family, and she became very sick. Soon after pop Jonathon was born and he was born with a large round birth mark on his shoulder, right where the spear had killed the emu. That is why nanna lily was sick and could not eat the emu and this is why the giant emu is pop Jonathon’s totem.

In the dreaming, a giant emu travelled through the country eating the people. To kill the giant emu a magic warrior made his special spears and he put on his head band and body paint. He left with his dingo and went looking for the giant emu. When he found where the emu was living, he hid in the only large tree that he could find and waited for the emu to walk past. The warrior killing the giant emu and the emus blood turned into a river before soaking into the ground and turning into gold. The giant emu’s body turned into the hills and mountains, and his spirit went up to the sky in the milky way, where we can still see him today.

• Artist: Jessica Lloyd
• Title: Coral Reef Turtles
• Size: 92cm x 65cm
• Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
• Region: Mullewa, WA.   Broome, WA

When I was younger me and my family went fishing just outside of Broome. We went for a long walk before settling down on a reef. After a while of fishing, I started to notice light reflecting weirdly in the water, curiously I stuck my fishing rod in the water and poked at it. It appeared to be some sort of jellyfish without tentacles, looking around I saw more and more coming in with the tide. Distracted with my fascination of the jellyfish I hadn’t noticed what was going on around me. My mum further up the beach was singing out to us to look into the ocean, to my surprise I saw a large group of sea turtles swimming only 30 meters away. From then on we seen all different turtles big and small, my favorite by far was the albino one that seemed to stay around more than the others. I don’t know how many fish we caught that day but I’ll always remember the jellyfish and the turtle. I always say that these turtles had come to visit my sister for her birthday but really, they were just hungry turtles coming in to feast. In my family turtles represent girls this painting in particular they represent me and my two older sisters.

The three circles in my painting represent my homeland, Nudagun being made up of three freshwater springs. The spring that is on the boarder of the marsh we call the butterfly spring. When we visit this spring we walk into this paperbark forest where the closer you get to the spring the more butterflies you will see.