The Walk of Life

“I will finish this painting for my sister because of the love that she and I have for each other”
This artwork is a collaboration between two sisters Aileen and Allery Sandy. These sisters were inseparable. In 2023, Aileen passed away and the canvas she was working on at the time was left unfinished. Almost one year later, her younger sister Allery completed her painting as an act of enduring love for her thurdu (older sister) who now rests with God.

Here is the story of this painting from Allery:
“There is a line that is grey and its a circle. The circle reminds me of the love that my sister had not only for myself and my immediate family but for the whole community. Wherever she went she spread her love, cared for each and every one because we are all related. Family is a strong thing has been in her life ever since she was young, she was always caring for people. Wherever they came from near and far. Always making sure families had beds and food. The lines of orange and red represents the Country, our Pilbara Country that she loved going out telling stories and teaching her young ones about the culture and what Culture meant to her and our ancestors who travelled through land and Country on foot in the early days. That’s the love that she had for the people around her because of the love that she had given to her by her ancestors, our grandmothers, our mums and dads. Today we still miss her and her face is always there before us. She may be gone but the spirit of her is still within us and still in the art centre. We sometimes pretend that she is still there. And it gives us strength and courage to continue our work with our artwork and continue sharing stories to our children and grandchildren. She is dearly missed but the greatest thing for me, being a child of God and a Believer, knowing that the Lord Jesus has set me free, in her last hour of her illness, she reached out and accepted Jesus into her life. That is why I have peace deep within me knowing where my sister is today. It took me a while to settle my spirit, to grieve over my sister at that time when she couldn’t finish this painting. It took me a month to really sit and relax and say ‘Yes I will finish this painting for my sister’ because of the love that she and I have for each other. We were never apart, we were always travelling together. Doing fishing, travelling to and from the art centre and always with our grandchildren. I miss her being alongside me. Whenever I drive I think about my sister, the time I would tell her to look both ways for me because I was driving. And we would all look at the road together and I’d say ‘look to the side and see if there’s traffic coming for me’. That’s a memory I have of her. finishing this painting was a privilege and honour for her to know the love between us is very strong and I still miss her today. This is the walk of life with me and her, we journeyed in that circle and we moved and expanded everywhere else where we needed to. Doesn’t matter if that’s with our family or being involved with community, we extend ourselves like elastic being pulled. It stretches us so far but we did not mind because we loved being part of a community and just sharing our love and our knowledge and our teaching to all walks of life. A journey filled with love, like an elastic band. We stretch so far”