A celebrated Aboriginal artist has described the dramatic moment she saw a white man for the first time.
Stumpy Brown, from Christmas Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, was a teenager when she first saw a non-Indigenous person.
The Wangkujanka woman was hunting with her parents near a stock route when a plane landed nearby.
A celebrated Aboriginal artist (pictured) has described the dramatic moment she saw a white man for the first time
‘We thought the white people might kill us,’ she told a documentary made by Rebel Films.
‘We were frightened of the white people so we hid in a wattle tree.
‘We sat under that tree looking out, then someone said “It’s long gone now, it’s way off”.’
She said her parents feared for their lives, so they stayed under the tree and did not go hunting, in case the plane returned.
The family remained in hiding overnight, with nothing but the bush tucker they had with them to eat.
Ms Brown’s uncle, a stockman, later took them to a mission where she met a Catholic priest who gave her lollies.
She said her family later traded for flour, and said the Catholics at the mission were ‘good and generous’.
Ms Brown was born at Ngapawarlu in the remote desert region in 1924, and died in 2011 after suffering a stroke in 2007.
She won the Kimberley Art Prize in 2005, and her art is featured in collections at theNational Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Stumpy Brown, from Christmas Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, was a teenager when she first saw a non-Indigenous person (pictured is footage from a Rebel Films documentary)