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Ngaldjorlhbo (Mother of Everything)

Ngaldjorlhbo is a powerful woman who created the spiritual and tangible world for the Aboriginal people in Western Arnhem Land. In creating the land and environment, she endowed Kuninjku people with the ability to create art, and with their culture, to share with future generations. Ngaldjorlhbo gives women the cultural knowledge and deep links to country, identity and ancestor spirits. 

‘Ngaldjorlhbo created daluk (women) When she started walking she started talking and telling stories. She create, came together as one. She was walking, thinking and writing with her hand creating all the animals and trees.  Creating mountains and rivers. Came together and made a beautiful flowing wind and river to the coming of the land. From fresh water to the salt water river, all the fish, all kinds of fish she created.

From little bird, big bird she created. She came all the way from east, west, north and south. 

She knows all the places from this land. She was speaking, she was telling, she was creating the country, this world. 

She was carrying kunmadj and digging stick and she created yawkyawk.

So that’s the story about Ngaldjorlhbo.’

Janet Marawarr 2022

 

 

Name: Janet Marawarr


Language: Kune, Kuninjku


Community: Maningrida


Biography:

Janet Kalidjan Marawarr is a senior Kuninjku artist who has been creating textile-based artwork at Bábbarra Women’s Centre for almost 40 years. Also a skilled bark painter, Janet views her art practice as a way to explore color and experiment with new media to express her djang (ancestral creation stories). Her artistic journey has taken her to Paris, Los Angeles, New Zealand, and most recently, India.

In 2019, Janet traveled to Paris to launch the touring exhibition Jarracharra (Dry Season Wind), which featured her work. In 2022, she traveled to Los Angeles, where her work was included in the exhibition Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia’s Top End at the Fowler Museum, UCLA. In January 2023, Janet was invited by the Australian Consul-General in Kolkata to explore the textile-rich region of West Bengal as a guest of honor. During her 10-day visit, she shared her knowledge with various women’s groups, including the Bridging Culture and Art Foundation’s Kantha studio in Tushkhali, Sundarbans; Sadaf India Studio; and the Navajeevan Co-operative Society in Jajpur, Odisha.

'I saw the old people doing only lino with bush dye, no screen printing. I was 18 then and I’m 60 now, so it’s been 40 years. I used to watch my mum weave baskets, and I saw my grandfather painting, too. One day, I learned from him. I love printing and linocuts, printing my designs on textiles.' - Janet Marawarr, Artlink 2023


© the artist / art centre