Queenie McKenzie

Near Pompeii Pillar – turnoff to Argyle mine. This painting was purchased by Neil McLeod in 1995 from the Warmun Pensioner Unit. Mook Mook Owl is from Pompeii Pillar. This is the same owl that Rover Thomas painted. The story of Dumbi is a Ngarinyn story (David Mowaljarlai, Jack Dale) but the owl is the same owl. Queenie and Rover painted the Mook Mook which is a story about the boo-book owl which lives in a cave near Pompei Pillar, near the Warmun community. The owls have been incorporated into the songs and dances of the Krill Krill ceremony, of which Rover Thomas was the custodian. The 3 hills in the top left are the Daiwul or Barramundi Dreaming site located where the Argyle Diamond Mine is currently. Katie Cox tells the story of how they were formed. ” In the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) three women were chasing Daiwul (the barramundi). They tried to trap her with spinifex nets. This is a traditional method of fishing where ngirring (river spinifex) is rolled in the water forming a net. However, Daiwul was too clever for the women and jumped through the net and over the hill behind Bow River. She landed in the water leading into Cattle Creek. As she cleared the hill, she scraped her under belly on the hill causing her scales to lift and scatter the country. (An allegory for how the diamonds of that area were created). As she jumped over the hill, a great crack in the hill line appeared where she scraped past. This place has always been referred to as Barramundi Dreaming. The women gave up and walked to a place called Kowinji (Cattle Creek) where they turned into rocks. You can still see them there today as rocks.” The same story is told by Lena Nyadbi and others. These hills are most probably the same 3 hills depicted by Rover Thomas on the Sothebys auction catalogue from 2005 – mistakenly named Uluru. The element at the lower left is Pompeii Pillar and the 2 small hills are situated along the road leading to the Argyle Mine. The element at the upper right is probably a cave located near the start of this road. This cave features in one of Rover Thomas’s paintings where he depicts an owl in a cave, and referring to the tragic death of his son nearby.