Lydia Balbal’s artwork is a depiction of her family’s homelands in Mangala country. Lydia walked all around this country with her family until the early 1970's when severe drought caused her people to walk out. They left their traditional country and headed to Le Grange Mission, now Bidyadanga community, on the coast south of Broome, WA. For Balbal, her artwork is a direct conduit to Mangala country and to the memory of her family. On reaching BIdyadanga Lydia went on to marry Yulapritja elder Nabiru Bullen (deceased) who she had children with.

Lydia’s art practice is also an important way for Lydia to have financial independence and support her family. In the same way that her traditional country was resource-rich, with plenty of mayi (bush tucker) to be collected, Lydia’s artwork is resource-rich, delivering everyday modern luxuries to Lydia and her family in their remote location. Top of the list in important needs in remote Australia are motor cars, used to travel from community to town for essentials and fun. Painted on a car bonnet, Keeping Up With the Balbal’s is a subversive and cheeky play on words for Lydia and her family’s needs and lifestyle within their community and greater Australia.
The work reveals the long distances that Aboriginal people had to walk to to survive following white occupation, together with the distance and essentials they need to survive in today’s modern world. The car bonnet is a powerful image when combined with the gentle soft washes of Balbal’s artistic hand. Lydia Balbal is a tough woman who always goes her own way, but her artworks reveals her as a sentimentalist, a memory keeper and dedicated mother, with a wild sense of humour.
This piece won the Telstra General Painting Award in 2024