Julie Dowling is a Badimaya / Yamatji woman, and one of Australia’s most collected artists. She draws on the diverse art traditions of European portraiture, Christian icons and Indigenous Australian iconography. Her style of painting blends classical techniques used in the Renaissance, with dot style painting commonly associated with Aboriginal painting, as well as Catholic iconography.

This artwork was purchased for the City's art collection in 2016, following the NAIDOC week exhibition, 'Burda Burda Dhulga, (Telling a Story with Songlines)', which celebrated the importance of Songlines. In the exhibition catalogue, Carol Dowling explained that "songlines are complex belief systems that interconnect land, deep spirituality, knowledge and values," that "enable our people to find a way to access our past to be brought alive into our present."

"The icon entitled Yalibirri (Emu) shows a young girl coming back to country after dealing with and trying to understand her ancestral lore which is based on the gaps between the stars. This is a significant songline for Badimaya people. This songline is about the emu laying its eggs appears during winter. This painting speaks about those who are dispossessed having to look into the stars to find hope and direction. No matter how disconnected you may feel from your culture and songlines, you can always learn it strengthen your identity."

Carol continued to explain that in these works more broadly, "Julie explores the way songlines have or have not been used in Native Title determinations. It is a discussion about sovereignty, self-determination and treaty. it is also a comment about the dispossession whereby our people continue to be treated as aliens in their own country and being forced through legal processes to prove our continual connection to our ancestral lands."