April 2023

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Mandjabu (Fish Trap)

“In old times people would make these mandjabu (fish traps) to go fishing. They are made with vine we find in the jungle. That old man, Anchor Gulunba, he showed me how to make these fish traps. I would sit there and watch him making them. We catch barramundi, catfish, all kinds of fish.” – Helen Lanyinwanga

Kuninjku people traditionally make two sorts of conical fish traps. One called mandjabu made from a vine called milil, and another smaller one called manylik mandjabu, made from the grass manylik. The mandjabu conical fish trap is bigger and stronger and used in tidal reaches of creeks to catch large fish. The smaller, lighter manylik trap is used in freshwater flowing creeks to catch smaller fish and freshwater prawns. Traditionally, only men were involved in the construction of the large fish traps, but children would often crawl inside and assist.

To make fish traps and fish net fences artists firstly get vine (milil) from the jungle and they put it in water for one night to make it soft. Next they start weaving it; they make rings for the inside to keep the fish trap’s shape. Artists work for three or four weeks on the fish trap. They also make string from kurrajong (burdaga) to attach the hibiscus (bardainy) rings and to tie the conical end of the fish trap. This fish trap is used in saltwater and freshwater. People also use fish net fences called mun-dirra. A long time ago they would put the mun-dirra across rivers and creeks. In the middle they would place the an-gujechiya. They also used small things like sticks, rocks, mud and grass to block the fish from going through. People would then catch fish like saltwater barramundi rajarra, freshwater barramundi (janambal), small black freshwater catfish (buliya), bonefish (an-guwirrpiya), and sand bass (dalakan) in these fish traps.

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Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33)

“I learnt how to paint in Kunawarritji; I’ve been painting here. I go to Punmu, Jigalong and Parnngurr, but I always go home to Kunawarritji. I learnt how to paint in Kunawarritji.

[When I was young] I was walking around Kunawarritji and Kun Kun, looking for meat with Jakayu and her family.”

 – Bugai Whyoulter

Kunawarritji is an important site in the Great Sandy Desert where multiple stories and histories intersect. Originally a spring water and major Martu pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) camping site, at the turn of the 20th century Kunawarritji was converted to a well along the Canning Stock Route. Each year throughout the 1930-50s, the well became a site of contact between the drovers, their cattle, and desert families such as Bugai’s. Bugai grew up, walked and hunted primarily around Punmu, Kunawarritji and Kun Kun (Kuny-Kuny), and as a young woman travelled up and down large tracts of the 1850km long Canning Stock Route, where she and her husband met and walked with cattle drovers. 

Long before colonial history entered this Country, however, other stories dominated this site. Primarily, Kunawarritji features in the Minyipuru (Jakulyukulyu, Seven Sisters) Jukurrpa (Dreaming). Minyipuru is a central Jukurrpa narrative for Martu, Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people that is associated with the seasonal Pleiades star constellation. Beginning in Roebourne on the west coast of Western Australia, the story morphs in its movement eastward across the land, following a group of women as they walk, dance, and even fly from waterhole to waterhole. As they travelled the women left markers in the landscape and create landforms that remain to this day. During the entirety of their journey the women are pursued by a lustful old man, Yurla, although interactions with other animals, groups of men, and spirit beings are also chronicled in the narrative.

The Minyipuru travelled to Kunawarritji from Nyipily (Nyipil, Nibil, Canning Stock Route Well 34), and transformed themselves into a distinctive group of trees that remain in the area between these two sites. From Kunawarritji Yurla followed the sisters to Pangkapirni, where he finally caught one of the women. 

Today, Kunawarritji is a site of return, a place where people came back to continue their life in the desert with the formation of Kunawarritji Aboriginal community in the early 1980s. The community’s cultural significance endures, with the population swelling up to 1000 during cultural business.

 Kunawarritji is Bugai’s home today, and the place where she first began painting her Country. As is clearly expressed in her account, for Bugai Kunawarritji is her ngurra (home Country, camp).

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Kunwardde dja Karrbarda (Rocks and Yam Vine)

Susan Marawarr is a Kuninjku artist from the Kurulk clan whose country lies around the outstation of Mumeka in central Arnhem Land. In this design, she has depicted karrbarda (long yam) on her traditional country, the kunwardde (stone country).

The large stones represent the kunwardde rocky outcrops, which are elevated above the flat floodplains. The vines creeping around the large rocks are from the karrbarda. Women dig up karrbarda with kungarrndutj (digging sticks) and they are then cooked in the ashes of the fire to be eaten.

These yams are purple on the saltwater side of country and on inland freshwater country they are white. Karrbarda are an important manme (bush food) that are collected during the wet and dry seasons.

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Dedded Wongkorr

This design depicts a ‘wongkorr’ sacred dilly bag woven with brightly coloured orange parrot feathers called ‘dedded’. It is depicted alongside a digging stick. Wongkorr are used in a number of public ceremonial contexts, and are sacred objects for the Bininj Kunwok speaking people of Western Arnhem Land.

‘This is a really special kind of dillybag for us, not like a normal dillybag.

This story was from a long time ago, when my great great grandfather was alive. He’s the one that was a medicine man for our people.
We are not supposed to see that sacred spirit dillybag that lives below the saltwater. If we ever see that site, it might drag us under and drown us. When the tide goes out he floats and when the tide comes in he goes under to hide.

This story is about fresh water and salt water mixing and our ancient law. There are strings of the Wongkorr hold it under the water. The Wongkorr is made with lorikeet parrot feathers and Kurrajong bark string.

I remember having a ceremony at that outstation Bolkjam when I was only 16 years old, near Ji Bal-bal homeland, and my father would tell me the story of the Wongkorr sacred site. My two sisters taught me to paint, and my Dad was a famous painter. Some balanda (non-Indigneous) know my father’s painting, it is about digging sticks, sharks and wongkorr.

This story links to mixed water, plant life and animals living at the artist’s country, and following the lessons and knowledge of the ancestors.’ Elizabeth Kala Kala

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Ocean Dreaming

In the beginning, the Great Spirit of the Sea created the vast and endless ocean, a place of beauty and mystery. She painted the waters with her brush of foam and painted the sky with her brush of clouds. The waves became her canvas, and she used them to tell the stories of the Dreamtime.

The Dreamtime stories tell of the creation of the world and the adventures of the spirit beings. They are stories of magic and wonder, of love and loss, of joy and sorrow. And in my emotive abstract ocean painting, I have tried to capture the essence of these stories.

The swirling forms and vibrant colors are the spirits of the sea, dancing and singing on the waves. The brushstrokes are the trails they leave behind as they journey through the Dreamtime. And the emotions that the painting evokes are the feelings that the Great Spirit of the Sea wants to share with us, to remind us of the magic and mystery of the ocean, and of the Dreamtime stories that are told upon its waves. 

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Ocean Dreaming

In the beginning, the Great Spirit of the Sea created the vast and endless ocean, a place of beauty and mystery. She painted the waters with her brush of foam and painted the sky with her brush of clouds. The waves became her canvas, and she used them to tell the stories of the Dreamtime.

The Dreamtime stories tell of the creation of the world and the adventures of the spirit beings. They are stories of magic and wonder, of love and loss, of joy and sorrow. And in my emotive abstract ocean painting, I have tried to capture the essence of these stories.

The swirling forms and vibrant colors are the spirits of the sea, dancing and singing on the waves. The brushstrokes are the trails they leave behind as they journey through the Dreamtime. And the emotions that the painting evokes are the feelings that the Great Spirit of the Sea wants to share with us, to remind us of the magic and mystery of the ocean, and of the Dreamtime stories that are told upon its waves. 

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Ngalkordow (Brolga) and Kawk (heron)

This drawing was made with fibre tipped texta and coloured pencil. One of the birds is Ngalkordow (on the left) the bird on the other side we call Kawk (rufus night heron). 

Both birds live on fresh water country. The come in black, brown and white. They are pictured beside their food – dikkala which is bush potato. 

Jay Jurrupula Rostron 2023

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Dakarra (cockle) – Helen Kaminski

Dakarra is the Burrara Gun-nartpa word for a type of cockle shell with prominant scaled ribs and an orange colour. This is part of a diet of shellfish which has been enjoyed by people whose country lies on the saltwater estuaries at the opening of  rivers throughout Arnhem Land.

Elizabeth Wullunmingu’s mother country is Djunawunya, near Gupunga on the Bligh river. This is saltwater country. Her design Dakarra represents a songline for this particular type of edible shellfish and the fishing lifestyle that is enjoyed by her people. 

Elizabeth’s grandfather Frank Gurrmanamana was seen in the documentary ‘Waiting For harry’  1978  by Ronin films which is filmed on Elizabeth’s mother country, Djunawunya. In this documentary, the late Frank Gurrmanamana is preparing the final mortuary ceremonies for his brother who died six years before. Central to the ceremonies is Harry Diama, the senior blood-relative of the deceased man, but Harry lives in Maningrida and is pre-occupied with a pending court-case there involving his son.

https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/video/1068702275809/Waiting-For-Harry

 

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