Naomie green
The Beforeland

2023
acrylic on canvas
76 x 102cm

I am 8 months pregnant and this painting tells the story of my baby leaving the dreaming world and coming to earth. The darkness at the top and bottom of the painting is our earthly world, lit up by the dreaming (or spirit world) the yellow, horizontal wave through the centre. The dreaming runs through
the middle of the painting because our earthly plane and the dreaming exist simultaneously, and we can communicate across the planes. Swimming through the dreaming are blue beings, my ancestors. To me, these resemble fish or jellyfish, and I think this is because in our dreaming stories, the first Worimi people came out of the sea. The purple touching each of the ancestors represents my baby meeting with and learning from each of our ancestors in preparation for its arrival into my arms, here on earth.