Mimi and Mongerrd
This story is about the two mimih brothers and mongerrd, at Kabari homeland in the rock country. “A long time ago, the mimih were living in the rock country. Mimih are tall, dark and very skinny spirits that live inside caves. One day, a group of mimih were sitting around the fire. Two brothers decided to go looking for sugar bag in the bush. The older brother was very upset with his younger sibling, because he knew the brother had been playing around with his wife, and he encouraged him to come look for sugar bag with him. The brothers found the native sugar bag, it was sweet like honey. It was in the middle of a hollow tree and so the oldest brother cut tree down by chopping at both sides. The tree fell and the older brother started to lick up that sugar. He told his little brother to lick some sugar bag too. The little brother was licking sugar bag when the older brother raised the stone axe behind his back, bought it down right on his neck and cut his head clean off. The guilty older brother then ran back to camp. Their mother saw the brother returning to camp alone. She asked, ‘Where is your little brother?’. He replied, ‘ I left him back there. He was eating the sugar bag’. The mother waited and waited, but the younger son did not return. She cried ‘Nangayeng nangeyeng galabarra djidjingdok’ (my son, my son, where have you gone?). The guilty big brother heard her singing and ran away into the bush. There was bad feeling at the camp, and so the mimih family packed up to leave the site. As they were walking they could hear more singing, and they were so frightened. The singing went ”mongerrd mongerrd mandjulah buwani buh” (Mongerrd is looking for the lost man). Mongerrd, a huge giant dangerous spirit stepped out of his cave- the mimih were terrified. The mimih stayed very still, because if they moved the Mongerrd would kill them with his miyarrdul (bommy-knocker). Then, the mimih family started running quickly, jumped and changed into birds and hid underneath leaves. Mongerrd kept searching for them, passing them not realising they were hiding underneath leaves in the shape of birds. When he had walked straight passed them, they morphed back into themselves, and speared him in the back, killing Mongerrd and he fell to the ground.” This print was created using the etching technique. It is a limited edition of 20 fine art prints, created in Maningrida in 2019.
