April 2023

Jima Jima (Waterlily)

Jimi jima is one of Tommy Gondorra Steele’s personal dreamings. It is similar to what is commonly known as a waterlily (monochoria australasica). Jimi jima is mainly associated with a waterhole named Yalija, but also other sacred waterholes in the Wurdeja area. Tommy’s painting of jima jima depicts the lily as it exists naturally in wet water areas at Wurdeja. They have an edible root, which is brownish and bitter when raw, but once roasted on coals it is deliciously sweet. They are only found in sacred waterholes in the Wurdeja area, including Yalija, and humans and spirits live off them. They are a bright blue flowering plant.

Tommy Gondorra Steele is the last male member of the Garnawula Niya clan. He lives at Wurdeja outstation, about four kilometres east of the Blyth River. He is the traditional owner of that area. Wurdeja is surrounded by a series of sacred waterholes and it is these waterholes, which provide the subject matter for Steele’s art.

Bark Painting

Aboriginal bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years.
In northern Australia, paintings on bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were stylistically similar to rock shelter paintings. The Aboriginal bark paintings were used to convey and illustrate stories which were told to the clan when holed up in the shelter for long periods in the wet season. In Kimberly, the Aboriginal bark paintings by Lily karadada resemble ancient rock art Wandjina paintings which are themselves many, many thousands of years old.

Bark paintings with deep cultural and ritual significance still feature in the Aboriginal sacred ceremonies of northern Australia and they, along with some coastal inhabitants are the only indigenous Aborigines still making traditional bark paintings.

The process of making a bark painting begins with choosing a suitable stringybark eucalyptus tree, preferably in the wet season when the sap is rising and the bark is fairly supple and easy to grip. After finding a section of bark that is devoid of knots and termite damage, cuts are made top and bottom and after some encouragement by tugging and prying, a hollow open cylinder of bark is removed. The bark sheet is trimmed and a fire made ready, over which the bark will be cured to drive out any moisture. The bark is then flattened to the ground with feet and then held down with heavy weights to ensure that it doesn’t curl or warp.

The Aboriginal bark painters of Arnhem Land adhere to four basic pigments – red, black, white and yellow. The reds and yellows come from ochres, crushed and powdered rocks. White comes from pipeclay and black generally comes from charcoal. Sometimes natural fixatives are mixed in to bind the pigments and which includes wax, yolk of eggs, resins and the sap of orchid plants. The paint can then be applied to the bark with perhaps a rarrk design by using a wood comb, or with brushes made from human hair or even feathers.

Bark Painting

Aboriginal bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years.
In northern Australia, paintings on bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were stylistically similar to rock shelter paintings. The Aboriginal bark paintings were used to convey and illustrate stories which were told to the clan when holed up in the shelter for long periods in the wet season. In Kimberly, the Aboriginal bark paintings by Lily karadada resemble ancient rock art Wandjina paintings which are themselves many, many thousands of years old.

Bark paintings with deep cultural and ritual significance still feature in the Aboriginal sacred ceremonies of northern Australia and they, along with some coastal inhabitants are the only indigenous Aborigines still making traditional bark paintings.

The process of making a bark painting begins with choosing a suitable stringybark eucalyptus tree, preferably in the wet season when the sap is rising and the bark is fairly supple and easy to grip. After finding a section of bark that is devoid of knots and termite damage, cuts are made top and bottom and after some encouragement by tugging and prying, a hollow open cylinder of bark is removed. The bark sheet is trimmed and a fire made ready, over which the bark will be cured to drive out any moisture. The bark is then flattened to the ground with feet and then held down with heavy weights to ensure that it doesn’t curl or warp.

The Aboriginal bark painters of Arnhem Land adhere to four basic pigments – red, black, white and yellow. The reds and yellows come from ochres, crushed and powdered rocks. White comes from pipeclay and black generally comes from charcoal. Sometimes natural fixatives are mixed in to bind the pigments and which includes wax, yolk of eggs, resins and the sap of orchid plants. The paint can then be applied to the bark with perhaps a rarrk design by using a wood comb, or with brushes made from human hair or even feathers.

Yawkyawk (Ngalkunburriyaymi)

This is a depiction of Ngalkunburriyaymi or Yawkyawk, the fish-women spirit. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams, particularly those in the stone country. These water spirits are perhaps the most enigmatic, and are usually described and depicted with the tails of fish. Thus the Kuninjku people sometime call them ngalberddjenj which literally means ‘the woman who has a tail like a fish’. They have long hair which is associated with trailing blooms of green algae (man-bak in Kuninjku) found in freshwater streams and rock pools. At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night.

Aboriginal people believe that at one time all animals were humans. During the time of the creation of landscapes and plants and animals, these ancestor heroes in human form changed into their animal forms via a series of various significant events now recorded as oral mythologies. Today the Kuninjku believe that ngalkunburriyaymi are alive and well and living in freshwater sites in a number of sacred locations. The Kuninjku also believe that ‘clever’ man (magicians with mystical powers called na-kordang) may take these spirits as wives. The father of Mandarrk, a well known artist who resided in the Central Arnhem area, is said to have had such a spirit as a wife. Unfortunately, it is said, she failed one day to return from being sent to fetch water from the river, and returned to her kin. The ngalkunburriyaymi also have husbands and children of their own kind. Their sites are usually shared with the rainbow serpent ngalyod. Some have ritual importance, for example in some depictions, the yawkyawk spirit holds ceremonial string, just like the lengths of string women hold between both hands today during certain public ceremonies. 

There are at least three major ngalkunburriyaymi sacred sites that are well known in the area south and south-west of Maningrida. One site Bolerrhlerr is on the Mann River at a place near Yikarrakkal Outstation where there are rugged rocky banks and clefts beneath stone overhangs in the water. Another very similar site further west in the Kumadderr River district is surrounded by a number of small but very old rock art sites and has become known in English as ‘Dreaming Lady’. A third site is a major yawkyawk dreaming place which is so significant that the traditional Dangkorlo clan custodians have set up an outstation near the site. The identity of this group is very much related to their yawkyawk dreaming for which they have spiritual and practical responsibility. 

Yawkyawk (Ngalkunburriyaymi)

This is a depiction of Ngalkunburriyaymi or Yawkyawk, the fish-women spirit. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams, particularly those in the stone country. These water spirits are perhaps the most enigmatic, and are usually described and depicted with the tails of fish. Thus the Kuninjku people sometime call them ngalberddjenj which literally means ‘the woman who has a tail like a fish’. They have long hair which is associated with trailing blooms of green algae (man-bak in Kuninjku) found in freshwater streams and rock pools. At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night.

Aboriginal people believe that at one time all animals were humans. During the time of the creation of landscapes and plants and animals, these ancestor heroes in human form changed into their animal forms via a series of various significant events now recorded as oral mythologies. Today the Kuninjku believe that ngalkunburriyaymi are alive and well and living in freshwater sites in a number of sacred locations. The Kuninjku also believe that ‘clever’ man (magicians with mystical powers called na-kordang) may take these spirits as wives. The father of Mandarrk, a well known artist who resided in the Central Arnhem area, is said to have had such a spirit as a wife. Unfortunately, it is said, she failed one day to return from being sent to fetch water from the river, and returned to her kin. The ngalkunburriyaymi also have husbands and children of their own kind. Their sites are usually shared with the rainbow serpent ngalyod. Some have ritual importance, for example in some depictions, the yawkyawk spirit holds ceremonial string, just like the lengths of string women hold between both hands today during certain public ceremonies. 

There are at least three major ngalkunburriyaymi sacred sites that are well known in the area south and south-west of Maningrida. One site Bolerrhlerr is on the Mann River at a place near Yikarrakkal Outstation where there are rugged rocky banks and clefts beneath stone overhangs in the water. Another very similar site further west in the Kumadderr River district is surrounded by a number of small but very old rock art sites and has become known in English as ‘Dreaming Lady’. A third site is a major yawkyawk dreaming place which is so significant that the traditional Dangkorlo clan custodians have set up an outstation near the site. The identity of this group is very much related to their yawkyawk dreaming for which they have spiritual and practical responsibility.