Matthew Quayle Matthew Quayle | Paakintji, Stories from my Grandmother, Acrylic on Handkerchiefs; 2019
'Because we have no Darling River now, this painting represents the way the Darling River was years ago – and the size of fish that we used to catch with worms. We used to see the fish because the water was so clear. When I was
young we used to help my grandmother carry her cooking utensils to the river then we’d go to school. At lunchtime
we’d go back to the river and my grandmother Amy Quayle would have our lunch ready waiting for us – fish and johnnycakes. She was a beautiful woman. She taught me everything. Because I didn’t have any money for a board, I painted this on a handkerchief.
My grandmother taught me that the porcupine fat is good for our skin. It makes it soft. It is also good eating. The fat is
like chewing gum when it is cold. You can chew it all day. The way to cook it is, you boil it to get the quills off then you
chuck it in a hole. That’s just the Paakintji way of cooking porcupine.'