Please note, the 2024 calendar is now out of stock.
About this year's calendar
This year we feature a remarkable collection of 12 artworks that share the stories of Swan.
The theme is Connections to Home, recognising the ancient and ongoing relationship the Whadjuk Noongar people have with the region.
About the artwork
Brianna Dawson: The Rainbow Serpent
The Wagyl or Rainbow Serpent is a giant snake in Noongar belief. It’s said to have created the Swan and Canning rivers, and other waterways and landforms around Perth. My artwork shows my representation of the Wagyl next to the Swan River. My artwork also represents Birak season (December-January). There are warmer colours for warmer weather – reds, oranges and yellows. But there are also cooler colours – greens blues and purples – for the afternoon and night-time breezes brought in by the sea.
Crystal Quartermaine: Boodja in Makuru (Land in Makuru)
In the Noongar season of Makuru (June-July), the land embraced the chill of winter, and the clans gathered, seeking warmth and sustenance. The clans knew it was time to move to warmer places, following the ancient rhythms of the land. The painting captures this transition, the sense of movement and migration as the clans venture forth, guided by the wisdom of their ancestors and the embrace of the land. One of the spirits is of my mother, who left to Dreamtime too soon.
Danielle Nelson: Gnalla Mia (Our Home)
The City of Swan is my home. My painting incorporates individuals, families and community coming together in the Swan region. Either side of the meeting area is the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) which travels through our Swan region. The Noongar season Birak (December-January) is represented by the colour red. It is the burning time of year for Noongar people, when they would burn the country in mosaic patterns. I have also included our local animals and flowers which also give us a connection to home.
Hayley Thompson: Maali Boodja
This artwork is a representation of the City of Swan and its long cultural history. The artwork includes features of the Derbarl Yerrigan which enters through the west of the City’s catchment area, the hills surrounding the city, local flora, and the elegant maali moort (black swan family). Bunuru, also known as “second summer” is a very good time of year for living and fishing by the different waterways, maambakoort (ocean), and bilya (river). Bunuru is special to me as it is my birth season.
Jarnda Councillor-Barns: Djilba Time
There are three large waterways in my piece, representing the journey of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) through locations of significance to Noongar culture within the City of Swan, from Bells Rapids, under Yagan Bridge and into Guildford. The gathering of people in the middle of the artwork represents the community created from people from all walks of life coming together. The pink aspects represent Elders who have passed on. In our culture even those who have passed still play a huge role in who we are.
Jeanette Garlett: A Walk through White-man's Park
Kambarang is a time when the Christmas trees blossom, showing their vivid yellow-orange flowers as the warmer weather returns. There are lots of bees, and other pollinating birds and insects on the search for nectar. It is a season of birth, when grass trees are flowering and melaleucas (tea trees) are also in blossom. It is a very nice time to take a leisurely stroll, observe the beautiful verticordia nitens (orange morrison) and feel the warm breeze.
Joanne Parfitt / Bungaan: My Boodja
My Boodja is a heartfelt tribute to the land that shaped my identity, York and Midland, where I was born and raised. We lived off the land, hunting and gathering. In my childhood, I thrived as a tomboy and accompanied my uncles on emu and kangaroo hunts. When we lived on the reserve, we would swim and go fishing, catching turtles, djilki (freshwater crayfish) and fish. It was a great month because we often got to sleep outside and we were closer to nature.
Julie Winmar: Kambarang Season (Success Hill)
My painting is about flora and fauna, family and Kambarang season. Kambarang along the Derbarl Yerrigan is when all of the wildflowers come out in beautiful yellows and oranges. Some of the plants in my painting include everlasting flowers, orchids, kangaroo paws, bottle brush, gumnut and a jacaranda tree. The birds in my painting include a white cockatoo (manatj), magpie (koolbardie) and a red-tailed black cockatoo (kaarak). The campfire in the corner symbolises my ancestors/family that lived along the river at Success Hill.
Lea Taylor (Hill/Pickett): Djeran Dek (April-May Flowers)
Each of the six Bibbulmun (Noongar) seasons puts on a beautiful show of wildflowers, many of which are also used as bush medicine and tucker. Djeran will show you a variety of banksia, marri flowers, Swan River daisy and a variety of grevillea. Djeran, my favourite season, is a time of regeneration. The first rains come to tempt the seeds lying in wait to pop their heads up and become the next generation. Cool burns would happen when the soil was dampened, helping the seeds sprout to life.
Philip Hansen: Waking up to the Darling Range
This artwork is about the place where I grew up and learned to paint. Every morning when I woke up and went to work, I would see the Darling Range. I used to go up to the bush to escape the rat race, to get away from what was happening at the bottom. I would go into the hills and paint. I went up there swimming and hunting when I was younger. September is the best time of year, when the Christmas trees bloom and the flowers come out.
Rickesha Burdett: Makuru Dreaming
My artwork depicts Makuru (Noongar winter) season, the coldest and wettest time of the year. The blue dots and lines represent the rain during the wet Makuru season. The brown/maroon background and earthy colours represent the land. The red circles and people symbols represent the current families living in the City of Swan. The blue circles with white joining them together represent the Swan River. The other people symbols represent the traditional Whadjuk Elders, the original owners and caretakers of this land.
Sarah and Shirleen Humphries: Ngaangk (Mother)
Our painting focuses on two mothers taking their daughters to the Derbarl Yerrigan to fish and catch turtles. It honours Sheila Humphries (nee Taylor) and Doreen Yarran Kickett Creed, and their mothers, Chickabidee and Mona Kickett. For Nan Sheila, this was one of her last happy memories with her mother, Chickabidee, before she was stolen. Nanna Doreen would always take her grandkids to the river and tell us about her childhood with Great Nanna Mona. You could see the joy every time they spoke about their mummies.