May 2023

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Lorrkkon

Marilyn’s first screen print design depicts the story of lorrkkon (hollow funeral logs). This the story of her great, great grandfather and grandmother who were bark painters, as well as also sacred lorrkkon painters.

When designing this screen print, Marilyn was remembering her childhood living in a small house on Liverpool river Ngar-wunja (Thompson hole) with other families.

Through the painting process, Marilyn remembered and relived the times when people still lived permanently on remote homelands, living off the land before balanda (non-indigenous people) arrived.

Marilyn recalls “it makes me think back, we did lots of things, some people was hunting, some was weaving, some was painting barks and lorrkkon. As my great, great grandfather and grandmother was painters, I painted this my story for them.”

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Djenj dja Wayuk

Djenj dja Wayuk (Fish and Waterlilies)

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Mardarda and Njarlarla

In Esther’s first screen design, she depicts the story of Mardarda (bones) and Njarlarla (fire sticks) carried in a dilly bag, reminiscent of traditional ways of the Ndjebenna people.

‘Back in the old days, our people would use a ‘bush lighter’ for lighting fires, which was two pieces of special wood which would make fire easily. The old people carried a dilly bag containing the fire stick all times, when they moved camps.

Old people would always carry dilly bags, sometimes with water, honey, food or bones of our deceased people.

When someone passed away their body would be put on a high platform built from eucalyptus and paperbark. They would use a firestick to light a fire under the platform, and people would sing and dance around that platform to send the deceased’s spirit back to his or her country.

The body would then be left here for many months. When ready, the clan would return to collect the bones to take them back to the deceased’s homeland for burial.

To travel to the homeland, people would paint the bones with brown ochre and place them in a dillybag. When they reached the deceased’s homeland, people would sing together, place the bones in the lorrkkon and to leave them rest forever.”

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Ngalyod Nest (Rainbow Snake Nest)

“Kun-madj (dilly bag), Wak (crow dreaming) and Ngalyod (Rainbow serpent). This is the same story with these three things, they are connected. Through one manikay” – Belinda Kuriniya

 

Kun-madj (dilly bag) which is a large woven collecting basket. These large bags are often made from the vine ‘Malasia scandens’, a strong pliable plant that grows along the floor and into the canopy of monsoon vine thickets. The bags are used to collect any kind of large numbers of heavy foods such as fish caught in conical fish traps or large collections of yams. They can also be made from Pandanus spiralis, a plant that grows in many areas of Arnhem Land. These dilly bags are often used to collect sugarbag, the native honey. As well as being of practical use, dilly bags are also of religious significance to Arnhem Land people. Dilly bags are said to be totemic objects and associated with particular sites in the landscape.

 

In the centre of this design, Belinda Kuriniya has depicted a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, an outstation south of Maningrida. The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred. 

The imagery represents the rock mentioned above at the bottom of Kurrurldul creek, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri-moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.

 

The third part of the story is Ngalyod. Kuninjku people say there are two Rainbow serpents. One is Yingarna, who is said to have been the original creator of all ancestral beings, the ‘first mother’. Yingarna’s first born is Ngaloyd. Yingarna, or her son Ngalyod, are a common subject on contemporary Kuninjku bark paintings. 

Ngalyod is very important in Kuninjku cosmology and is associated with the creation of all sacred sites, djang, in Kuninjku clan lands. For example, ancestral stories relate how creator, or ancestral beings, had travelled across the country and had angered Ngalyod who swallowed them and returned to the earth to create the site. Today, Ngalyod protects these sites, and its power is present in each one. 

Ngalyod has both powers of creation and destruction and is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons and rainbows, which are a manifestation of Ngalyod’s power and presence. Ngalyod is associated with the destructive power of the storms and with the plenty of the wet season, being both a destroyer and a giver of life. Ngalyod’s power controls the fertility of the country and the seasons.

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Wayuk

‘I always follow the footpath of my grandmother. I have too many stories of my grandmother. We went to the bush and ate bushtucker like yam, yabbie, barra, catfish and magpie goose. We didn’t come into town often, we were staying at Barrihdjowkkeng outstation. I learned how the old people used to live. I always think about my family out there and I keep going. My grandmother asked me to work with her for many years. I watched her making lino and screen printing. That’s why I stay in this job and I’m for the women’s centre’.  Roseanna Bonson 2021

Roseanna’s first design is a 2 colour waterlily design. Wayuk (waterlily) *kuninjki grow in the swamps around Barrihdjowkkeng.

‘The flowers of the waterlily are white and yellow and I like that kind of colour.’ Roseanna Bonson 2021

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Lorrkkon

Marilyn’s first screen print design depicts the story of lorrkkon (hollow funeral logs). This the story of her great, great grandfather and grandmother who were bark painters, as well as also sacred lorrkkon painters.

When designing this screen print, Marilyn was remembering her childhood living in a small house on Liverpool river Ngar-wunja (Thompson hole) with other families.

Through the painting process, Marilyn remembered and relived the times when people still lived permanently on remote homelands, living off the land before balanda (non-indigenous people) arrived.

Marilyn recalls “it makes me think back, we did lots of things, some people was hunting, some was weaving, some was painting barks and lorrkkon. As my great, great grandfather and grandmother was painters, I painted this my story for them.”

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Mardarda and Njarlarla

In Esther’s first screen design, she depicts the story of Mardarda (bones) and Njarlarla (fire sticks) carried in a dilly bag, reminiscent of traditional ways of the Ndjebenna people.

‘Back in the old days, our people would use a ‘bush lighter’ for lighting fires, which was two pieces of special wood which would make fire easily. The old people carried a dilly bag containing the fire stick all times, when they moved camps.

Old people would always carry dilly bags, sometimes with water, honey, food or bones of our deceased people.

When someone passed away their body would be put on a high platform built from eucalyptus and paperbark. They would use a firestick to light a fire under the platform, and people would sing and dance around that platform to send the deceased’s spirit back to his or her country.

The body would then be left here for many months. When ready, the clan would return to collect the bones to take them back to the deceased’s homeland for burial.

To travel to the homeland, people would paint the bones with brown ochre and place them in a dillybag. When they reached the deceased’s homeland, people would sing together, place the bones in the lorrkkon and to leave them rest forever.”