Roseleen Park

Roseleen Park

Roseleen Park was born circa 1970 in Derby, Western Australia. She grew up in Fitzroy Crossing, primarily raised by her stepfather Geoffrey Adams and mother Rosie Park. Roseleen attended school in Fitzroy Crossing and spent holidays visiting her family in the Warmun Community with her mother. From 1980 to 1983, she attended school in Derby and later went to boarding school at Perth's Pallantine Centre for her high school education. In 2004, Roseleen got her first job as an Aboriginal Education Worker (AEW) at Fitzroy District High School. She later moved to Warmun Community, where she continues to live with her son Wayne Hughes and niece Shanchia Hughes.

Roseleen began painting in 2006 and quickly became one of the most promising young ochre painters. She paints country on Alice Downs, Yarunga (Chinamen Garden), Texas, Lissadell, Turkey Creek, Violet Valley, and Chamberlain, which are the traditional lands of her mother and grandfather. Her extended family includes notable artists like Madigan Thomas, Shirley Purdie, Lena Nyadbi, Betty Carrington, and Hector Jandany. Jane Yalunga, Anthony Yalunga, Katie Cox, and June Peters are also her first cousins and artists. June Peters is the mother of her niece Shanchia, one of Warmun's very young painters. Deanne Peters is Shanchia's elder sister. Warmun artists Nancy Nodea and Churchill Cann are also her cousins, representing her Gija heritage.

Representation and Warmun Art Centre

Roseleen Park is represented by the Warmun Art Centre, located 200 km south of Kununurra in Western Australia. Established in 1998 by the founding members of the contemporary painting movement in Warmun, the centre supports, maintains, and promotes Gija art, language, and culture. It is owned and governed by Gija people, with 100% of income returning to the community.

Warmun artists are renowned for their use of natural ochre and pigments on canvas to depict traditional Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) stories and contemporary life. The centre has gained a national and international reputation, led by highly successful elder artists like Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, George Mung Mung, and Paddy Jaminji.

Currently, internationally renowned painters like Lena Nyadbi, Patrick Mung Mung, Mabel Juli, Shirley Purdie, Madigan Thomas, Gordon Barney, Phyllis Thomas, Churchill Cann, and Betty Carrington continue to lead a group of over sixty emerging and younger artists painting for the art centre. This new generation of Warmun artists works with the same time-honored materials and stories, creating fresh, original, and vibrant works that transcend cultural boundaries and place Warmun artists at the forefront of contemporary art in Australia.

Their work is exhibited and held in important collections both internationally and locally in Australia's flagship art institutions, such as the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, and the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as in top commercial galleries across the country.