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Nawarlah – Brown River Stingray

We hunt the Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) during the wet season.  There is a plant with a yellow flower that tells us that it is the right time.  We know it will be fat. 

It is well known that Aboriginal art often depicts images of sacred totems or dreamings of Aboriginal culture. However, the world of the non-sacred also provides a rich source of subject matter for Aboriginal art. Much of the rock art of western Arnhem Land for example features secular topics such as common food animals and plants, depicted because of their economic importance but also merely because of their existence in the environment.

Categories: Maningrida Arts & Culture

Name: Anniebell Marrngamarrnga

Language: Kuninjku

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

I learnt how to weave from my mother, Nancy Djulumba, who passed away a long time ago [1995]. I first made coiled baskets, twined bags and string bags. I then learned how to paint from my husband [Dick Nadjolorro].

My favourite subject is the yawkyawk ngalkuburriyaymi, female spirit, who lives in the water at Kubumi. It is my husband’s Dreaming. I represent her in my bark paintings, in my timber carvings and also in my weaving.

I came with the idea to make flat yawkyawk from pandanus [Pandanus spiralis]. First I build the bamboo frame and I then weave with colourful pandanus in the same technique I used when making twined bags. I use lots of different colours and I like it. Colours are important in my work.

-  Anniebell Marrngamarrnga, interview by Apolline Kohen at Maningrida Arts and Culture, 12 February 2007

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