Healing Country - Yapatjarra Muu

By Chern’ee Sutton                  
Age – 24 years            
Size – 151cm wide X 121cm high          
Medium – Acrylic and textured acrylic on canvas

Healing Country - Yapatjarra Muu

My name is Chern’ee Sutton and I am a contemporary Indigenous artist from the Kalkadoon people from the Mount Isa region in Queensland. This is my interpretation of “Yapatjarra Muu”, meaning “Healing Country.”

For thousands and thousands of years, the land has carried a song of life and connection. The song of Mother Nature has been heard, it is the thread that binds all things together. It can be heard as a whisper sung across the landscape, it can be heard blowing through the tree’s and it can be seen skipping invisibly across the billabongs and rivers forming little ripples. It flows through the rivers and waterways, around the mountains and gently drifts across the landscape on the wind. It can be heard rustling the leaves of trees, seen in the native flowers that bloom and felt in the changing seasons. 

Country is alive with colour and movement. Water winds its way across the landscape, bringing life to the plants and flowers along its banks. Birds soar through the skies, animals leave their tracks upon the land and butterflies dance among the blooming flowers.

This artwork celebrates the land, the waterways, the plants, the animals and the communities across Country and the connection that binds us all together. Country needs our care and Healing Country reminds us that when nature thrives, so do we.