In Profile: Sonya Creek

Sonya Creek was born in 1971 and has lived in Wujal Wujal for 16 years. Sonya is an emerging artist who has been working with the Bana Yirriji Art Centre for the past five years.

Sonya belongs to the Kuku Nyungkul language group and says of her family, “My grandfather Alec Creek is a Kaantju man from Coen and my grandmother is KuKu Nyungkul from Shipton Flat”.

Sonya has participated in many group exhibitions over the years including most recently the Endeavour Voyage: The Untold Stories of Cook and the First Australians, that is exhibited and part of the National Museum of Australia collection. Sonya also regularly participates in the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and Cairns Indigenous Art Fair each year.

Speaking about making artwork, Sonya says, “I love it because some of my family members encourage me to make artwork. I have artists from both sides of my family.”

Sonya works across a variety of mediums including acrylic on canvas, silk batik, screen-printing and jewelry.

Speaking about her Magpie Geese artwork, Sonya explains, “My painting is about my Grandmother’s stories hunting Geese, she told me how they used to walk for miles to go hunting for magpie geese in the wet season. They would walk all the way to Kings Plains Lagoon, you can always find them near swamps.”