This item is reproduced courtesy of artist Ian Abdulla and Greenaway Art Gallery. It may be printed or saved for personal research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Greenaway Art Gallery and the State Library of South Australia. Further information may be found at Permission to publish.

Ian Abdulla's vibrant, distinctive paintings illustrate the Ngarrindjeri artist's childhood and youth along the River Murray in the 1950s and 1960s. Images with handwritten text portray scenes such as campfires, football games, and collecting bottles, but also indicate loss of traditional lands and way of life, including hunting, fishing and collecting foods such as swan, Murray Cod, and quandongs, from the wild.

Abdulla was awarded South Australian Aboriginal artist of the year in 1991, and Tucker was short-listed for the Children's Book Council Eve Pownall Award for Information Books in 1995. His paintings inspired Rodney Scott's play RiverlanD which premiered at the Adelaide Festival in 2004, performed by South Australia's Windmill Performing Arts theatre group. Abdulla's work is held at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, South Australian Museum, Art Gallery of South Australia, Flinders University Art Museum, and National Gallery of Australia.

Ian Abdulla died in January 2011.

Abdulla, Ian As I grew older: the life and times of a Nunga growing up along the River Murray. Norwood, S. Aust: Omnibus Books, 1993

Abdulla, Ian River, land and memory: the work of Ian Abdulla / curator: Christine Nicholls; Ngarrindjeri community liaison consultant: Agnes Love. [Bedford Pk, S. Aust.]: Flinders University Art Museum, [2002]

Fox, Stephen Ian W. Abdulla: Elvis has entered the building / Stephen Fox and Janet Maughan. Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 2003

Adelaide Biennale of Australian art (2000). Beyond the pale: contemporary indigenous art: 2000 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art / Art Gallery of South Australia; curated by Brenda L. Croft. Adelaide: Art Gallery Board of South Australia, 2000

Greenaway Art Gallery. See: Artists: Abdulla

Flinders University: Murray Cod: the biggest fish in the river

South Australian Museum: Australian Aboriginal Culture Gallery: Speaking land: Art and life