December 2023

Djamo (dog)

The djamo (dog) holds special mythological as well as practical significance for people of Central Arnhem land, particularly women. The men used to go hunting with a spear and the women with a dog. If the men didn’t catch a kangaroo, the women would catch a goanna. If neither caught anything, then they could catch fish. If there was neither kangaroo nor goanna, then they would eat sugarbag. This is how it was long ago – sugarbag, lily root, yam, goanna, sand goanna, fish and more were part of the regular diet. “Don’t forget that long ago we didn’t know European food, we knew bush food. We used to grow from bush food.” Rembarrnga women have literally and metaphorically brought together strands from their country and the mythology of their heritage to produce three dimensional fibre creatures filled with mystical significance. Dog, mermaid, rainbow serpent, blue tongue and fish multiplication spirits: each creature plays an important role in the clan’s cultural landscape. Materials for this camp dog comes from the clan estate. Dayarr (pandanus) and rulk (grass) are the twines used for the creature’s bodies. Warlppurrunggu (bush turkey) and nganarrngh (black cockatoo) feathers provide bulkkan-na (hair). Marnarr (red), gamununggu (white), garlba (yellow) ochres and roerroe (black) ashes are then carefully mixed and applied for colour. The use of local materials provides an integral link between the mythological nature of the creatures, which inhabit the country and their physical form.

Djamo (dog)

The djamo (dog) holds special mythological as well as practical significance for people of Central Arnhem land, particularly women. The men used to go hunting with a spear and the women with a dog. If the men didn’t catch a kangaroo, the women would catch a goanna. If neither caught anything, then they could catch fish. If there was neither kangaroo nor goanna, then they would eat sugarbag. This is how it was long ago – sugarbag, lily root, yam, goanna, sand goanna, fish and more were part of the regular diet. “Don’t forget that long ago we didn’t know European food, we knew bush food. We used to grow from bush food.” Rembarrnga women have literally and metaphorically brought together strands from their country and the mythology of their heritage to produce three dimensional fibre creatures filled with mystical significance. Dog, mermaid, rainbow serpent, blue tongue and fish multiplication spirits: each creature plays an important role in the clan’s cultural landscape. Materials for this camp dog comes from the clan estate. Dayarr (pandanus) and rulk (grass) are the twines used for the creature’s bodies. Warlppurrunggu (bush turkey) and nganarrngh (black cockatoo) feathers provide bulkkan-na (hair). Marnarr (red), gamununggu (white), garlba (yellow) ochres and roerroe (black) ashes are then carefully mixed and applied for colour. The use of local materials provides an integral link between the mythological nature of the creatures, which inhabit the country and their physical form.

Djamo (dog)

The djamo (dog) holds special mythological as well as practical significance for people of Central Arnhem land, particularly women. The men used to go hunting with a spear and the women with a dog. If the men didn’t catch a kangaroo, the women would catch a goanna. If neither caught anything, then they could catch fish. If there was neither kangaroo nor goanna, then they would eat sugarbag. This is how it was long ago – sugarbag, lily root, yam, goanna, sand goanna, fish and more were part of the regular diet. “Don’t forget that long ago we didn’t know European food, we knew bush food. We used to grow from bush food.” Rembarrnga women have literally and metaphorically brought together strands from their country and the mythology of their heritage to produce three dimensional fibre creatures filled with mystical significance. Dog, mermaid, rainbow serpent, blue tongue and fish multiplication spirits: each creature plays an important role in the clan’s cultural landscape. Materials for this camp dog comes from the clan estate. Dayarr (pandanus) and rulk (grass) are the twines used for the creature’s bodies. Warlppurrunggu (bush turkey) and nganarrngh (black cockatoo) feathers provide bulkkan-na (hair). Marnarr (red), gamununggu (white), garlba (yellow) ochres and roerroe (black) ashes are then carefully mixed and applied for colour. The use of local materials provides an integral link between the mythological nature of the creatures, which inhabit the country and their physical form.

Mat

Mats can vary greatly. Artists commonly use a mix of naturally dyed and undyed fibre to create a striking variation of coloured bands. Some artists also incorporate different types of looping to produce different patterns and textured finishes. Each type of mat, fibre bag, basket and dilly bag has its own name in the various languages spoken in the Maningrida region.

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. 

Warraburnburn

In Burarra and Gun-nartpa languages the figure represented in this artwork is generally known as a wangarra ‘ghost spirit’. For the Warrawarra clan ghost spirits have their own particular characteristics and their own name – Warraburnburn.

The Warraburnburn and the closely related Galabarrbarr spirit (owned by the Balkarranga clan) are also manikay song topics.  The spirits are related to each other as maternal grandparent and grandchild, just as the people of Warrawarra and Balkarranga are. The dancing of the two ghost spirit figures forms the finale performance for funerals, and is the final goodbye to a deceased family member.

In many ways the Warraburnburn and Galabarrbarr ghost spirits are like people. They emerge from the patches of jungle on Warrawarra and Balkarranga country in the late afternoon and go hunting in family groups of men, women and children. They stay in contact with each other by calling out as the men hunt for fish and the women walk with their dillybags looking for vegetable food. 

The ghost spirits are associated closely with white ochre and artists commonly paint the bodies of carved figures in white. Different types of ghost spirit wear different patterns. Warraburnburn is decorated with uniform white dots while others are painted white all over. Some ghost spirits are shown with a design painted on their chest infilled with rarrk ‘cross-hatching’, the same designs that are painted onto japi an-guyinda ‘male initiations’. 

They also have supernatural characteristics including superhuman size (jarra anbaykarda ‘super tall’). They know the country intimately – some are malevolent towards humans and will lead people astray, taking them to unfamiliar and dangerous places. These malevolent spirits are likened to an-muburda ‘sorcerers’ and can conduct dangerous rituals that cause harm to people. Others are benign and will lead humans back to familiar paths and their own camps.