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Karrakbal dja nuye kunmurrng (Moon man and his bones)

The subject matter of this bark is ‘Death’ and its connection to the conflict, as told in the ‘Dreaming’ stories, between the Moon and the Quoll about the fate of humanity.

According to local mythology, the Moon (Dird) is associated with the concept of mortality and rebirth and argued this point with his adversary, the spotted Quoll (Djabbo). Quoll believed that death was final, but they couldn’t agree so Moon proved his point by going up into the sky to where he dies and is reborn again every month. Quoll stayed on earth and died as we humans do, once and once only.


Throughout Western Arnhem land there are several Dird Djang, Moon Dreaming sites. One of these sites is at Yikarrakkal on the Mann River near Maningrida, another is in the Jawoyn country within Kakadu National Park.
Each of these sites share the common story of the argument between the Moon and Quoll. 

-Lorraine Kabbindi White, 2020

Categories: Marrawuddi Arts & Culture

Name: Lorraine Kabbindi White

Language: Kunwinjku

Community: Oenpelli

Biography:

Lorraine Kabbindi White is an artist who lives in Melbourne, Victoria. She was born in Darwin, Northern Territory in 1991. Her mother is a west Arnhem Kunwinjku Mok clan woman and her father is a non-Aboriginal Australian. Kabbindi grew up with her mother’s family in Gunbalanya and at Kabulwarnamyo on the traditional country (Mankung Djang) of her late grandfather, Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek AO, and with her father at Jabiru where she went to school.

As a custodian of the culture and traditions of her people, she preserves the stories she learned as a child through her art. She learned to paint in her grandfather’s style at his side both at Kabulwarnamyo and on his frequent visits to her home in Jabiru. He remains her inspiration and she continues to paint in his specific West Arnhem plateau “Stone Country” x-ray style – depicting spirit beings, animals and plants from her grandfather’s country. With highly refined creativity, skill and detail Kabbindi captures the essence of her ancestry, a synthesis of her grandfather/s unique painting style with her own.

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